


A Fox Named Nicholas

by Fearrig



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: AU, Abuse, F/M, Slavery, T.A.M.E. Shock Collars (Zootopia), dark au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-15 14:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 44,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11232954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fearrig/pseuds/Fearrig
Summary: When 5-year old Judy hears her family purchased a fox kit, she had no idea what to think, or of what was to come. Follow her growth as she gets to know the newest addition to her family, and also learns the cruelties of the world she resides in.Just a warning, while there might be lighter moments, this isn't meant to be a happy story overall.





	1. Chapter 1: The Fox

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody, this is going to be a decently long, sad but ultimately uplifting tale about a certain family of rabbits that ends up 'buying' a fox. This story is going to cover a number of years (12 in total), so do not be surprised to see multiple time-skips throughout the story. There is no need to worry about this story not being finished either. I always finish what I start before I publish anything so you will never find yourself going weeks without an update.
> 
> That being said, I hope you all enjoy the story. It's going to start out slow, as it's told at first from the eyes of a very young child, but as they grow so will it. I just hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it (and if that seems odd given the context, just wait for the final chapter).
> 
> Also to answer a question yet to be asked, yes I am the same person over on FF.net, and I am posting the story here at the same time as over there. I'd also like to apologize for the odd line breaks, as I feel that they're necessary, and am unsure of how to get across a similar effect on this website.

When she'd first heard the news, Judy had been more than a little shocked, but at the same time she'd been equally as excited. Her older siblings would brush her aside, telling her that little kits weren't allowed to see, but she'd push past them along with a number of other kits anyway, because she was five, a full handful, brimming with energy, and in a crowd of kits too large to be stopped by rabbits who were more interested in talking amongst themselves than they were preventing the kits from seeing the fox.

Judy didn't know why her parents had chosen to buy a fox, but buy him they had, and she wanted to see if he was anything like her stories, big, fast, cruel, with claws like daggers, teeth like knives, and a mean sneer to show the world how horrible he was. She was left disappointed, when she finally made it to the front lawn the thing waiting there looked nothing like what she'd imagined.

It certainly looked similar to how she'd seen foxes in pictures, but it was far smaller, its hands were hidden behind soft-looking gloves, its head was stuck in a strange device that looked part fabric and part metal, a bunch of metal loops going around the fox's mouth, almost too tight for him to be able to open it, while the fabric looped around his head and held it in place. A metal ring was around his neck, a yellow light on in the center of it, and the only other thing this 'fox' was wearing was a worn and torn pair of brown shorts. Even at her the age of 5 Judy knew it was too skinny, its arms being too small to snatch up any kits like in the stories, its legs too weak to run away from any cops. The thing was barely bigger than her, though even the extra height could be ignored as it was hunched forward protectively, its arms wrapped around its tail and holding it to its chest as it looked around at the large group of rabbits in front of it.

In front of the fox stood her parents, and they motioned for it to come near. Instead the little fox shook its head, eyes wide as it stared at the vast sea of bunnies. Judy saw her mother pull something out of her pocket, and not a second later the fox screaming out in pain, one hand shooting to its neck, but that stopped the second her suddenly sad-looking mother put whatever it was back in her pocket and soon it was holding its tail in both arms again, the same way Judy knew some of her sisters held their stuffed rabbit. She had to admire how fluffy the tail looked, if she was able to have something like it then she wouldn't let go either.

"Why isn't he de-clawed at least?" Judy heard one of the older rabbits ask another.

"That's part of the contract." Replied the second one, to a derisive snort from the first.

"Screw the contract, why did they agree to that anyway?" Asked the first one.

"Bon thinks he'll be good around the house when he's older." The second rabbit answered.

"Right, like I'll ever trust a fox to do anything right." The first one drawled out.

"Don't worry, but the time we're finished training him, you'll be eating those words." Replied the second with great amusement. Judy could only wonder what kind of training that would be, she'd seen some of her older siblings be trained to dig holes and plant vegetables and that seemed fun, she sometimes tried helping with her little shovel, but how would training be for a fox?

* * *

It turned out training for a fox was a lot different than it was for a bunny, as was his room. Judy's parents had put the fox in what used to be a closet, and locked the door for most of the first day.

"Can we see him?" She asked, pleading with her father amidst half a dozen other voices all echoing the same thought.

"No kits, you can't see him until we let him out." Her father replied as he continued to walk down the hallway.

"When is he coming out?" Asked a chorus of voices.

"After dinnertime, he needs to grow used to the place." Stu spoke, her father shrugging off the disappointed 'awww's' the crowd gave when the kits realized they wouldn't be able to see him for three more hours. Suddenly Stu spun on the spot and looked down at them. "You all know what happens when you're naughty right?" Her father asked, and the excited kits all nodded their heads. "Good, well the fox was naughty when we got to the lawn, that's why he was shocked, and that's why he's staying in his room until after dinner." Her father finished.

"Awwww!" The kits all whined again, even if they knew it wouldn't change their father's mind. Sure enough, Stu had soon turned around and was walking away, some of the kits following him, whereas others were like Judy, and decided to return to the fox's room, more than willing to wait here until supper, maybe they'd be able to see the fox before then.

* * *

When the fox was finally let out of his room, Judy was one of the kits who got to stand in the front row, now able to see him much closer she could tell that he still looked scared, his ears folding back rather than drooping, and his head darted around as he took in the crowd that was staring at him, though it was nothing compared to the crowd outside the house.

Her mother stood next to him, and motioned with her hand to everyone around her. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet our new helper, say 'hello'." She demanded as she looked down at him.

"H-hello!" The little fox stammered out with wide and frightened eyes.

"I expect anyone who has any objections about him staying with us to bring their thoughts to either myself or Stu, and I expect you'll treat out helper with all the respect he deserves." That second part seemed a little odd to Judy, why would a fox deserve anything?

Her mother turning back to the fox was the only thing that prevented her from asking the question, especially because she'd pulled a strange looking remote from her pocket and Judy was curious what it would do. "When he's being mean, you'll see this happen to him." As her mother spoke she pushed a button on the remote, and to Judy's surprise the light on the ring around the fox's neck turned red, and then the fox began crying out again, one arm reaching up to his neck, while the other seemed to just twitch. After a second the light changed back to yellow, and Judy could see the fox was crying, but she couldn't feel bad for him. Her mother had said that would happen if he was mean, so it was his fault.

Surprisingly her sentiment didn’t seem shared by her parent, as her mother had another sad look on her face when she pocketed the device once more. "If he's being naughty, then you come and tell myself or Stu immediately, and we'll punish him appropriately." Judy nodded along with a number of other kits, this was something she couldn't wait for, her stories had told her all about the naughty foxes and she'd be making sure none of her siblings got hurt by him!

"Good, now fox, come." He mother demanded as she began to move a little down the hallway, the crowd parting for her as she went but the fox didn't move, instead he only glanced nervously around still. Judy's mother walked back to him, looked down at him for a second, and then with one of her hands gave a small swat to one of his ears.

Judy winced, she'd been swatted like that before and it had hurt for a minute. She'd also seen her siblings get swatted like that before and some of them began to cry, much like how this fox was beginning to cry right now. "Come." Her mother ordered, walking down the hallway again.

This time the fox quickly ran after her and Judy, along with a number of her siblings, closed behind him, the little kits fascinated by his long and puffy tail. Being the first in line, and more than a little curious, Judy reached out and grabbed at it, only to see it fly away from her and go between the fox's legs, safe from curious hands.

Undeterred, Judy followed the fox along with her siblings, curious where her mother was going and what she would make him do.

* * *

It turned out that her mother had taken the fox out to train, and simply had him do the dishes. It was boring to watch, but Judy stayed anyway, sure that there was something more to it, and even if there wasn't, she needed to keep an eye on the fox to make sure he wasn't naughty. When her mother said he was finished, she gave him a bowl of soup and tucked a straw in through the metal loops around his mouth. When that was gone her mother took him back to his room, and as soon as he was inside she'd locked the door.

It took Judy a little bit to realize she wasn't going to see the fox for the rest of the night, so she went back to her kit room, and returned in the morning to find her father in charge of the fox this time. Like her mother, her father would lightly swat one of the fox's ears when he didn't listen right away, but otherwise he took the fox around the burrow, told him about the different rooms, and then made him fold some laundry.

This time it was a bit different than when she was trained in how to fold laundry however, whenever the fox folded a shirt wrong and presented it to her dad, he would lightly hit the fox's ears, and after the third time he turned to see Judy and two of her sisters staring and watching him.

"It's okay kits." Her father stated in a friendly tone. "I’m just training him." He said while pointing to a small book in his other hand Judy hadn’t noticed yet. 

The next time the fox offered up a shirt, Judy could see his arms shaking in what she guessed was fear, but she didn't understand why. If he didn't want to get punished then he just had to do it right, and even at her distance Judy could see there was nothing wrong with the shirt, but it was then that the fox decided to be mean.

That was the only explanation she had for it, as the light on his neck-ring turned red, the fox dropped the shirt, and reached up to grab the ring while letting out a long whine. When the light turned back to yellow, the fox looked up at her father, more tears coming down from his eyes.

"Pick it up." Sighed out her father, pointing at the shirt on the floor. The fox quickly took it, refolded it, and then held it up to her father, the buck nodding after he looked at it for a few seconds.

* * *

So a routine ended up forming. Judy would see the fox be taken out of his room by one of her parents, first they'd take him to one of the washrooms to get ready for the day, and then he'd be made to do one of the regular tasks that she'd seen her older siblings do, though whenever he did something wrong he was punished, and every time the day ended he'd be given a bowl of cereal and put back in his room. Whoever took him out was always the one holding the same book, a ‘training manual’ she heard the others say and the name at least sounded interesting.

A few times this routine changed, the first was a few weeks after they'd gotten the fox, her mother had walked up to the door, unlocked it, and then pulled out the strange remote and pushed one of its many buttons. Judy thought she heard a whine, and then the door would open to reveal the fox, no longer looking quite as skinny as when he got here, and now wearing shorts that weren't torn, as well as a t-shirt that didn't fit right, being made for an older rabbit rather than a small fox.

The fox would follow after her parents wherever they went, head hung low, but strangely enough his collar light, as she'd eventually learned the metal loop was called a collar, would be displaying a green light instead of the yellow it had the first couple of days that he was here. Occasionally it would turn yellow, usually when the fox watched everyone else eat and her parents made him sit by their sides, but Judy wasn't bothered by it. The fox was always fed after supper, and she remembered one of her uncles saying the fox should be happy he was getting anything at all.

Other times the light turned yellow included when the fox looked outside some of the windows when he got to the main floor of the burrow, but this only happened occasionally. Other times where when he'd made a mistake with his chores, as Judy learned they were, and her parents would punish him in the same way, their saddened looks from his initial punishments slowly vanishing as the ‘training’ went on.

Eventually the light almost never turned red anymore, and Judy was glad. Red meant he was being mean, and if it wasn't red anymore then that meant he was no longer a mean fox, right?

Before she knew it, weeks had passed. She and the rest of the burrow simply grew used to having the fox around, and eventually her parents even let him go around without their direct supervision, they'd simply tell him to do something and he'd do it, running off as fast as he could to do whatever chore they demanded. When the day was over he'd just go back to his room, shut the door, one of her parents would check on him, and then his room would be locked for the rest of the night.

Perhaps if her parents had been watching him constantly Judy would never have gotten the opportunity to talk to him in the laundry room one day. It was a day when most of the rabbits were out in the fields, or teaching the older rabbits, and the little doe happened to pass by the room and found herself entranced by the fox's tail once more. No matter how many times she'd tried to grab it, the fluffy appendage would always move out of reach at the last second, but now was her chance to try again and get it in between her hands.

She did not try to sneak up on the fox, rather she ran and jumped, flying forwards and snapping her hands shut around the tail, only to hear a high-pitched yelp, and then feel an odd tingle pass through her, so she let go. The second her grip was gone however the fox cried out and fell to the floor, his hands around his collar and the light displaying red. Judy frowned at that, the fox was trying to be mean? She couldn't see how, but she trusted her parents to tell her what that red light meant, so he had to have been mean!

When the light reverted to yellow, the fox stood back up, but this time he faced her instead of having his back to her, and his expression was remarkably similar to how he was when he'd first arrived, even his arms were now protectively holding his tail.

"Why were you being mean?" She asked, and the little fox blinked.

"I-I wasn't being mean!" He stammered out.

Judy pointed at his collar. "Your light turned red, that means you were being mean!" She said with a smile, knowing she was right.

The fox let out a whine, a canid's whine still sounding odd to her ears. "I didn't w-want to be mean!" He stammered back, moving slightly away from her as he spoke. "Please don't tell!"

Judy frowned at that. "Why not?" She challenged, the fox's eyes looking left and right as she waited for a response, though she was wise to his tricks.

"I'll-I'll..." He stammered out before his voice trailed into another whine.

"I'm telling!" Judy decided, turning to leave to tell her mother about the fox being mean. 

"I'll let you t-touch my tail! Just this once!" The fox quickly stammered out and Judy froze in her tracks. That was a good deal, one she decided to agree on.

"Deal!" She yelled, coming back and approaching the fox, looking at his yellow collar and scared face before down at the tail nestled between his gloved hands. It took a few seconds for him to hold it out to her, and she eagerly took it.

It was as soft as she imagined, and had a lot of hair, far more than she'd expected, the little doe assuming that most of his tail was skin, muscle and bone. She pet it for a few seconds, and then it was gone, tucked in close to the fox again as he held it tightly to his chest.

"Give it back or I'll tell!" She demanded, and with a sad look, he handed it back over. As Judy pet it again she decided that if most foxes were bad, then maybe some were okay, and her family had gotten lucky to get one of the not-bad ones.

* * *

Though Judy never told her parents the fox was mean, or any of the later times in which the fox was mean (taking those as more opportunities to grab his tail) she did have more than enough siblings who were more than willing to tell, especially when all that happened was he wouldn't get his supper for the night.

It had started when one of her aunties had handed out a sweet to one of the kits for telling her, and then her mom and dad began handing out sweets, and soon there was a crowd following the fox everywhere, hoping to catch one of the times that he was mean so that they could get the treats themselves. It limited the times in which Judy could play with his tail, much to her annoyance, but sometimes all of her siblings would grow bored and leave, while she'd sometimes stick around. In those rare few moments she'd try to catch his tail, he'd usually be mean, and then she'd be able to play with it some more.

After a few more weeks his bouts of being mean happened less and less, before seeming to stop altogether, and even when she grabbed his tail he would only pull it out of her hands with a frightened look. The first two times she hadn't said anything about it, but the third time it happened she had a plan.

"If you don't let me play with it I'll tell them you were being mean!" She demanded to the fox one day as he was back on folding laundry.

"But I wasn't being mean!" He argued back, a little scared of the threat.

"No, but I'll tell them anyway!" She stated definitively and with a big smile, the fox's ears folding back and his eyes growing wide, before he held his tail out to her and she realized she could play with it to her heart's content. 

Unfortunately a few days later some of her siblings had also realized easy ways of getting candy, which was just to tell their parents that he was being mean, regardless of whether or not it was true. Fortunately good old sibling rivalry saved the fox from further misery on the third day in a row that they'd lied about him being mean.

"He was being mean again?" Asked her mother to the group of kits in disbelief.

"No!" Judy yelled out, a lone voice amidst many crying 'Yes!'. Her mother focused on her with narrow eyes and Judy explained further: "He wasn't being mean, Jamie's lying so he can get candy!" She yelled out.

"No I'm not!" Replied the kit who had told her mother.

"Yes you were!" Yelled another one of Judy's sisters, this one not having liked the lying kit anyway.

Soon a shouting match broke out and her parents had to take the time to separate them all, sticking them in different tables in the dining room with nothing to do for time-out. That was the last time sweets were used to goad the children into telling their parents, and while some blamed Judy for being a tattletale, others blamed Jamie for lying about it.

Of course the lack of sweets made it far easier for her to find the fox alone, and eventually she no longer had to threaten him to touch his tail, she'd simply walk up and grab it. He'd look around to see who it was, and when he saw it was her he'd go back to doing whatever he was doing.

* * *

When Christmas rolled around Judy found herself with a small pile of presents, as were all her siblings, as well as all of the adult rabbits, at least half of the rabbits gathered in the family room to celebrate and open gifts together, including her parents which naturally meant the fox was there.

The 'vulpine' (a word Judy'd been proud to remember) ran around the room, picking up present after present in a corner and running them to their proper owners, by the time the stack was half-gone he was panting a lot, and when it was finally gone he was shaking from the effort of standing. Judy knew that feeling, sometimes after playing for a while she found it hard to stand, but until her parents told him 'sit', the fox remained on his feet.

When he finally sat down though it was to Judy's confusion. Santa Claws always gave presents, but where were the fox's? Whispered mutterings from the other kits confirmed she wasn't alone in her thoughts, and soon her dad stood to address them.

"I see some of you kits are wondering where his presents are." Her dad spoke, motioning towards the fox as he did so. "Well he's been naughty a few times earlier this year, and Santa Claws doesn't give any gifts to naughty kits!" He declared, before resuming his seat next to her mother.

It made sense to Judy, but she couldn't ignore noticing how sad the fox's face looked as he stared at them all opening their gifts, just as she couldn't ignore the tears rolling down his cheeks when he watched everyone else play with their new toys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for an author's note. If you found this chapter hard to sit through, please give it a bit of time. As mentioned above it's told through the eyes of a child, and this is more for setup than anything else. As Judy grows, so will her knowledge of the fox as well as the world around her. Until then, I decided to try to present her in a third person view that allows you to get into her head somewhat, so future chapters are going to feel quite a bit different.  
> 


	2. Birthdays and Ranger Scouts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, most of this story will be focused on the growing connection between the fox and the rabbit, while compressing an enormous amount of time down to a much more reasonable length. If I really wanted to I could have this entire story reach well over 400 pages if I printed everything out, however I opted not to do that which is why you're going to see so many time skips, and why the majority of this story focuses more on Judy and the fox.
> 
> On the plus side, both kits are a little older, and each year they grow means I don't need to restrain my writing as much. That doesn't mean I want or I'm going to write dark and gritty things, but I feel using too complex a vocabulary or words that kits clearly wouldn't know at their age would interfere with the idea that the story takes place from their point of view. Essentially the story and plot grows as they do. Luckily as we saw in the movie Judy had a surprisingly large vocabulary, even at her young age, so I'll admit I can sort of cheat in a few cases.
> 
> On another plus side, this chapter has a few good moments in it for the fox. Unfortunately you can probably guess that isn't going to last, what with the title of this chapter being what it is. I imagine some of you'll find it hard to like this chapter because of what will happen and while it isn't something I like to add into stories, I did see it as a necessity to cover, especially when it comes to the following chapter.

A day would come where Judy was almost as excited as when they'd first gotten the fox, and that day would be a little more than a month after her own birthday. She'd already turned 6, so she was now being taught in school like many of her older siblings. That wasn't what made her so excited however, what she was looking forward to was seeing the fox inside the family room again, standing first in line in the ring of kits and adults as her parents slid the fox's gloves off.

They'd been warned about this before, the gloves the fox wore were to make sure his claws couldn't hurt them, or at least that's what her parents had told her. Now that he'd been trained, his gloves and muzzle could be removed (Judy having learned that's what those metal loops around his mouth were called), and Judy was excited to see if now he'd be anything like the fox's in her storybooks, only he wouldn't be naughty or mean, he'd been trained not to be like that.

At first she was disappointed when she saw the tiny black spikes at the end of his fingers, but then they grew and shrank as he pushed them out and retracted them, Judy's eyes growing wide at the motion. Maybe she could threaten him so that she could touch those too! Her thoughts derailed when his muzzle was removed however, unlike his claws she knew what his teeth looked like, but she never knew his jaw could stretch so wide when he opened it all the way. She could see how evil foxes would sneak away with naughty rabbit kits in their jaws, not that their fox would do anything like it.

When they were finished taking off his gloves and muzzle her mother and father proudly looked to everyone else in the crowd. "From now on our fox will wear these only when he's being mean or naughty." Her dad stated, looking towards all the kits as he held up the gloves and muzzle. "If you think he's being mean or naughty, please tell us, but there won't be any treats for it!" That was quickly followed by a glare to the kits, most of whom giggled at the reminder.

"Happy 7th birthday." Her mother said as she patted the fox on the shoulder, and Judy saw an odd sight, the fox was actually smiling! It was soon followed by his tail wagging when a number of adult rabbits applauded, Judy joining in along with a number of her brothers and sisters, but that soon died down and her parents began to leave. "Come." Her mother ordered and the fox obeyed, passing close to Judy as they left the room and the doe had to stifle a snicker, the fabric from both the muzzle's harness and the gloves had left funny marks on his fur, making an odd parting pattern where it was and it reminded her of the times she'd slept on the bed weirdly.

* * *

"So when did you get your cake?" Judy asked the fox, petting his tail once more as the fox folded laundry again. It was a task that she'd learned nobody liked to do that much, which was why the fox was always the one to do it, but she was fine it it. It meant that any time she didn't have to go to school and he was folding laundry, she could play with his tail or bother him in conversations. Recently too she'd managed to touch his teeth and claws, both under threat, but he didn't react in the same scared way he had the first couple of times she'd demanded his tail.

"I didn't get a cake." He answered as if he was stating a fact, and Judy frowned.

"But it's your birthday!" She argued out with a frown. The fox's birthday had come and gone and she simply assumed she'd missed the cake. Having brothers and sisters who numbered at nearly a hundred it was only natural to miss a few cakes, but the birthday boys and girls always got at least one large piece.

"I've never gotten cake for my birthday." He replied and Judy's ears sank a little as she thought about it.

"Oh." Was all she could offer. "Okay!" She spoke in more of a happy tone once she could realized that if he'd never had a birthday cake before, then that was because that was normal, and it would have been weird for him to get one!

Feeling proud for having figured that out she went back to his tail. "So what presents did you get?" She asked as he continued to work.

"I don't get any presents." He answered back.

"Oh." She managed again, pondering this. While cake was nice, Judy did like the presents more, but if he didn't get presents, and he didn't get cake... "So what did you get for your birthday?" The confused doe asked.

"I don't have to wear my gloves or muzzle anymore." He answered happily.

"Yeah, but that's because you're trained!" Judy argued, though the fox didn't pay her words any heed. She frowned again, birthdays were supposed to be special, but nothing special seemed to happen during his birthday.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hopps told me I don't have to work on Sundays, and my room's not getting locked anymore!" He suddenly announced and Judy looked up at the smiling vulpine with a tilt to her head. That was news to her.

"So what are you going to do on Sundays?" She asked and the fox shrugged.

"I can do anything!" He replied happily, and Judy say his collar light turn yellow. "I'm going to go grab some books from the library so I can read them later, I can go visit the town with Mr. and Mrs. Hopps, or even on my own, I can-" Suddenly he was cut off as the light turned red and Judy heard a buzzing sound, followed by an odd twitch to her fingers. She let go of his tail, but the second she did the fox reached up and grasped at his collar, a whine escaping his throat as he did, but soon it was over and the light had gone back to green.

"You were being mean!" Judy accused as she stared at the fox with wide eyes, the frightened vulpine spinning around to face her.

"Please don't tell anyone!" He begged her as tears appeared in his eyes. "I don't want to have to wear the muzzle again!"

Judy stared at him a little, frowning as she did before she finally came up with something she wanted. "I won't tell if you let me touch your claws and teeth whenever I want!" She demanded and the fox nodded.

Judy was pleased with that, though as she grabbed his tail again and he went back to his chores she couldn't help but think of his birthday again. "The next time we have a birthday I'll give you some cake!" She announced, pleased with herself for thinking it up, though the fox didn't do more than smile, Judy temporarily stopping to wonder at the rare sight.

* * *

Judy kept her promise, and the next time there was a birthday she did manage to sneak some cake over to the vulpine while he was washing dishes. It turned out however that he wasn't supposed to eat any, at least not according to her mother when she walked in on the two of them, and for the rest of the day the fox had to wear his muzzle. Judy thought that was a mild punishment, but the fox seemed to think different, if his shaking hands, droopy tail and sad eyes were to go by. She guessed too he might also be a little angry as his collar light was yellow.

The muzzle didn't stay on long, only being on his head for a day, though she soon found out she wasn't able to remove it on her own, the device locking at the back of the fox's head with a little chip each of her parents carried around. Being muzzled however didn't mean she couldn't sneak him certain things on other days in exchange for extra favours and besides, if he got caught with something he shouldn't have when the muzzle was already on her parents would just give his head a light swat, though sometimes the sad look on his face from that was enough to make her wince too and regret what she'd done.

She didn't have as much time to be with him thanks to school though, and like her it turned out the fox was also being taught as the weeks went along, though he was relegated to one of the 'home classes' her family had to have, much like every rabbit family above a certain size to make sure the schools weren't overpopulated.

It worked to her benefit however, being nearly a year older and a grade above her he could easily be bribed to help her whenever she needed help with her homework, usually while she had his tail wrapped under an arm at the same time. Helping others with homework was usually something frowned upon, her older siblings (specifically the ones who taught the home classes) preferring it if their 'students' came to them rather than anyone else, but she was comfortable around the fox, and unlike her other siblings he wasn't going to tell on her.

"Fox, what's this mean?" She asked as she pointed to a strange symbol in her book.

"That's a 'division' sign, that's for older kits." The fox replied after taking a quick look.

"But what's it mean?" She asked back, getting frustrated she couldn't figure it out.

"I don't know, I haven't gotten that far." He answered, not stopping his chores in the process. Judy simply glared at her book, as if staring at it would yield the answers to the mysterious sign.

* * *

When she was 7 and the fox was 8, Judy was finally allowed to leave the farm without any supervision, so long as she only did it in the summer season. This was a proud day for her, and not least because she had saved up her allowance for summer to fully come, ready to walk into the town on the weekend and buy herself the biggest ice cream cone she could.

Her plans didn't fully survive however, the first time she wanted to go she needed Saturday to finish her homework, but when Sunday rolled around she found herself free to leave, alongside an excited fox who had the biggest smile she'd ever seen on him. It was one he wore as they left together, and it lasted throughout their trip into town.

Judy hadn't actually asked the fox to come with her, she just happened to find him by the front door at the same time she was ready to go, so without saying a word the two kits left and began walking towards the town, Judy already imagining an elephant-sized cone... but then her thoughts turned to what the fox was smiling about.

"What're you gonna do when we get into town?" She asked, and his big smile turned towards her.

"I'm gonna join the ranger scouts!" The fox declared, and Judy thought about the odd group. Some of her older siblings were a part of the group and she knew they liked it, hopefully the fox would too, and maybe she would as well, as soon as she was 8.

"Johnny's a ranger scout." She said and the fox nodded.

"I heard him talk about it, it sounds neat!" The fox spoke excitedly as he looked off into the distance. "You get to learn how to tie knots, survive in the woods, and you get to help people, and I don't have to worry about... you know." What he hadn't said was obvious to her anyway, he meant he'd be able to help without being forced, and without fear of getting punished if he did something wrong.

He was right about the Ranger Scouts though, she'd never heard of anything like that happening there, and she also knew that there were a lot more than just rabbits that would sign up. "Do you think you'll meet any other foxes?" She asked curiously.

"I might, it'll be cool to be part of a pack!" He continued, his collar light briefly switching to yellow before it went back to green. Judy took note of the change, it was more of a rare sight these days, and she assumed that was a good thing.

* * *

Just as they had arrived together, they ended up leaving together, though like before it wasn't because they'd planned it that way. Judy had gotten her ice cream, sadly just a large inside a rabbit sized cone (the store telling her they didn't carry them in elephant sizes), and she just happened to meet her family's fox on the road back to her house, the vulpine's ears back and looking a little sad, not to mention his collar displaying a distinct yellow light from the center.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she came within his earshot, Judy remembering that his hearing wasn't as good as hers.

"I couldn't be a ranger scout." He answered dismally, Judy's own ears falling a little bit as he began trudging back home, even his tail was between his legs. "You have to buy a uniform." He continued, and Judy's ears rose back up.

"If you save up your allowance you could buy it." She offered, her usual cheer back, though the fox just shook his head.

"I don't get allowance." He said sadly and for a second Judy stopped where she was, watching the fox plod along ahead of her before an idea came to mind.

She caught up almost as soon as she began running and with her free hand she pulled out some money from her pocket. "Here, you can have some of mine!" She declared, much to the fox's surprise.

"Why?" He asked back, looking at her in surprise.

"Because-" She began, before noticing her ice cream was beginning to melt. She paused to take a big like and then looked back at the fox, chocolate stuck in the fur around her mouth and giving her a very odd mustache. "Because I'll pay you to help with my homework! That way mom and dad can't put the muzzle on you for having candy anymore!" She felt proud for having come up with the thought, and the fox seemed stunned by her ingenuity.

"Oh, thanks." He muttered with a slight smile at the mustachioed kit before him, taking the money and putting it in a pocket. His collar light soon turned back to green as they resumed their walk, and before they were even halfway back Judy saw a happy smile on his face again.

* * *

When summer break rolled around Judy found herself bothering the fox more and more. It wasn't her fault though, last year she and all of her siblings had no issues with playing together, but this year they'd all been forming their own little groups. She wouldn't be allowed with her brothers because she wasn't a boy, or they were doing something she didn't want to do, and likewise her sisters would tell her she smelled of fox, even if she'd just taken a bath, or they were just being boring.

Her being with the fox was getting noticed by more and more of her family members though, even if they didn't necessarily know why she was doing it or how to react to it.

"Jessica! Stop that!" Her father demanded one day when he saw her playing with the fox's tail. It was Sunday and the two of them were in a corner of the vast Hopps library, the fox reading a book while Judy occasionally flipped through another, he crossed legs completely covered by the fox's extra appendage.

"I'm not Jessica dad, I'm Judy!" Judy yelled back, a little offended at the mix-up.

"Judy would never do that." Her dad argued as he frowned, and Judy frowned back. The first dozen or so times he used that trick she had fallen for it, doing what he said just to prove a point that she was, in fact who she said she was. Eventually the fox had pointed out that it was a trick, and she'd been angry at it ever since.

Judy did push the fox's tail off of her lap however, though when her dad nodded and turned around she pulled it back on. Her dad wasn't likely to remember her name or to punish her for it if he caught her doing it again however, she was more than aware it became hard to keep track of names and deeds when your children were now in the hundreds and an extra litter had been born last week. Eventually she'd also be expected to help in raising the kits, but she didn't mind that part, all of her siblings seemed to enjoy it and the babies were cute.

Of course not everyone was like her father, sometimes her mother would pull her aside and ask her to stop following the fox around, and sometimes her aunts and uncles would tell her not to bother him if they caught her being near him while he was in the middle of his chores, but nobody seemed to remember they'd told her before and she'd soon be back at his side.

There were other reasons she enjoyed being there however, aside from helping with homework when school came back and doing odd favours for her, the fox was a great listener, and sometimes she and him would make fun of something that happened recently.

Occasionally they even played a board game on the weekends, usually in her room. Judy'd only played them in his room the one time, which was also the first time she'd been in there. It was so colourless and aside from a bed, some books in the corner and a light, there was nothing else there. It was much more fun to play in her room, at least then she could throw a stuffed rabbit at him if she got mad that he was winning, and then he'd catch it out of the air with his teeth, and then they'd fall to the floor, her trying to pry open his mouth until he eventually gave up and let her have the toy back.

When the third Christmas with the fox rolled around again Judy could see once more that while the fox was running around and handing out gifts, he in turn received no presents. Like in the previous two Christmas's the fox's collar light turned yellow and tears rolled down his eyes when everyone else began to play around with their new toys, but Judy comforted him after the celebration, sneaking him a toy when nobody was looking.

"What is this?" He asked as she handed over a box displaying a robotic looking rabbit in a pink dress.

"It's yours, I'm giving it to you!" She proudly answered.

"I can't have this!" He replied as he pushed it back towards her.

"Yes you can!" She argued back.

"No I can't, it's against the rules!" He stated with a bit of fear, and Judy's ears fell. As much as she wanted to help the fox she was well aware of what would happen if he broke the rules, her parents would muzzle him, and if they thought it was really bad they'd swat his head.

"Oh." She replied, her ears falling before they perked up again: "Well you can come over and play with her then, any Sunday!" She announced happily, and that brought a smile to the fox's face, and then he moved in to hug her.

Judy happily accepted the hug in return, it being the first one she'd ever received from the vulpine, and as such she relished every second of it.

* * *

When February came and the snow began to thaw, Judy celebrated her eighth birthday. Though she received many congratulations and gifts (alongside her other littermates), she couldn't help but notice the fox was missing. She would go looking for him sometime afterwards, hiding a small slice of cake as she went. When she finally found him he'd thank her in person before devouring the tasty treat as if he was starving. She didn't mind the display, helping make him happy which in turn made her happy, even if his collar light did briefly turn yellow. They would then proceeded to talk about how the rest of the party went, and joke about when they'd notice she was missing.

The months afterwards were very busy for her however, a lot of the time she normally spent with the fox on the weekend was now spent taking care of the new litter her mom and dad had made, and Judy jumped at the chance to help her older siblings care for the babies. Sundays were the only real time she'd have to spend with him beyond an hour or two at most, but Judy never found herself bored or too stressed under the new workload, even with the new grade she'd been moved into.

Like before the fox continued to help her with her homework, but the more time went on the more she was looking forwards to summer, now having a definite appreciation for the times when there were no school and she could simply do whatever she wanted. The fox also became more talkative as time went on, though as summer approached more and more of his questions revolved around the Junior Ranger Scouts, and in turn Judy would ask her siblings about it.

"You thinking of joining them Jesse?" Answered her teenage brother Tom.

"Judy!" She corrected indignantly, and Tom, as well as several other rabbits in the room began snickering.

"You need a nickname so we remember you." Tom's friend Mike spoke to her, "How about Jude?"

"Jude?" She answered with a confused look, that was almost like Judy!

"Yeah, Jude, for Jude the dude!" He teased and some more snickers came from her family and their friends.

"I'm not a dude!" She argued back.

"No but you act like one!" Tom teased her back, and at that Judy stormed off. If they were just going to make fun of her then she didn't want to hear it.

Fortunately most of her talks with her siblings later that week went better than her talk with Tom, even if a number of them now called her Jude. Despite saying how much she didn't like it the name stuck, not least of which because she chose pants and overalls whereas her sisters chose dresses (unless they were working in the field). It didn't help that Judy preferred physical activities far more than most of her other sisters, though that might have been because most of them shunned her for hanging out with the fox for too long.

Eventually summer rolled around, and in their walk to town the fox was practically hopping in place, glee written all over his face and his collar light displaying a solid yellow. It no longer bothered Judy anymore, for awhile now she'd known that the yellow was a precursor to red, but you didn't stay with him for as long as she had without realizing the collar sometimes confused 'mean' with 'happy', so instead of scaring her away it made her move a little closer to the excited vulpine.

They were going to get there a little late, the town just starting to get dark, but for some reason the Ranger Scouts only met this late and all of the businesses would still be open, so Judy would be allowed to buy all the sweets she was looking forward to, while the fox had finally saved up enough of her allowance to afford the uniform.

They parted in the main square, the fox running off to go pick up his uniform and Judy leaving to go see a movie, the doe a little worried that her family might come looking for her, after all it would be dark by the time the movie was over, but she doubted that would happen. Most of them seemed to forget about her unless she was the one they were talking to right at that moment.

* * *

The fox practically skipped inside the community center, having proudly donned his green uniform, cap and neckerchief while keeping his enthusiasm in check, today was going to be a great day and he wasn't going to have it interrupted by his collar suddenly shocking him.

As he saw the sign directing new members to go downstairs, he remembered everything the rabbit had told him about the Scouts from her brothers and sisters who'd been a part of it. The first Sunday was just going to be an introduction, handled by the senior members of the group without any instructors present, the second Sunday was going to be learning basic survival, the third Sunday they'd work on knots and the fourth would be community service.

He didn't know anything past that, the rabbit having not been able to get exact details, but he did know that there'd be day trips out to the woods and back somewhere in there, and he also knew that while there they'd be taught camping skills, and that was one of the parts he was most looking forward to. Camping in the woods meant that there was nobody to order him around, nobody to force him to do something he didn't want to do, nobody to make him wear a muzzle and nobody to hit him... maybe he'd ask a certain bunny to come along, just in case he got lonely, and this way he'd be able to show her what he learned!

His excitement only grew when he saw the other Scouts, half a dozen of them stood in the basement, most of them rabbits, none of which he recognized, one of them a horse, and one of them a larger goat. "You ready fox?" The goat asked with a big smile.

Reigning in his excitement at the last second to prevent being shocked, the fox ran to the front and center of the goat, which put him in the middle of the group. "Yeah!" He blurted out.

"Well then ranger, raise your right hand, and say the words." The goat asked, the fox's tail wagging a little at being called 'ranger'.

He did as he was asked, raising his hand, and remembering the words that he'd sworn to commit to memory the second his rabbit friend had told him them: "I promise to be brave, loyal, and trustworthy." He stated proudly.

There was a little snicker from the group at that, and the fox had the sneaking suspicion that he'd missed something. He couldn't think of what it was though, he'd said exactly what the bunny had told him, and she'd gotten it from her older siblings, they wouldn't lie to her right?

"Aren't you forgetting something ranger?" The goat asked through what seemed to be a sneer, and suddenly the fox found himself getting very uncomfortable. "Your name, ranger. You're supposed to say your name."

The fox's tail dipped a bit low at that as he stared at the goat, and then around at the group, seeing sneers from them that matched the goat's. "I don't have one." He confessed. The rabbits never called him a name, only 'fox' and he was well aware that couldn't be it.

"That's right, you don't, because you're a slave." The horse suddenly spoke up, and though he'd never heard the word before, 'slave' did not sound like a good one to the fox, and the tone of voice the horse used to say it made his skin crawl.

"Yep, he's a slave." The goat repeated while all the rabbits around him began to nod enthusiastically. The fox was quickly growing scared, this hadn't turned out at all like how he'd thought it would. "Do you know something special about slaves, fox?" The goat asked as he moved closer.

"W-what?" The fox asked back, becoming more panicked as the ring of mammals began to close in on him, blocking any chance of escape.

"Slaves can't be ranger scouts." The goat spat out, before turning around, picking something up, and presenting it to him. "And even if they could, nobody would ever trust you without one of these."

In the goat's arms was a muzzle, the device having been concealed behind the mammal the entire time. The fox's heart began to beat in panic, in fear. "But I was told anyone could be a ranger scout! We just need the uniform!" He argued back as he backed away from the goat with his eyes glued to the muzzle, only to feel hands suddenly seize his shoulders, yank him back, and pin him to the ground, the horse having pinned him in place.

"We're going to fix that then!" Yelled out the goat, and to his horror the fox saw the other ranger scouts pull out pocket knives. He knew that at some point they would get them as a part of being a ranger scout, but having claws of his own he hadn't given it much thought.

"Don't hurt me!" He pleaded as they came closer and closer.

* * *

When Judy came out of the movie theater she was happy. She'd just gone in to see a comedy about some kids and their school, and she'd thought it was great, not only did it put her in the mood for a nice peaceful summer, but she'd be able to talk about the movie with whatever siblings would listen for a while yet, at least until it was released on video.

Her walk home took her past the community center where she knew the Junior Ranger Scouts were going to meet, and for a second she wondered what it would be like to join them too. It would be nice to keep doing things with the fox, but at the same time it she didn't consider it worth it to walk all the way to town, and then all the way back home each and every Sunday, especially when some of the siblings she wasn't too fond of were already members and would be able to boss her around more.

As she passed by it, she heard a small sound, one that was almost inaudible, even with her hearing, but it was closely followed by a louder yelp. She paused for a second to determine where it came from, and then was off sprinting in the direction of the noise. She knew who was making that noise and why. She'd heard it too many times, and now she was old enough to understand some other reasons it might happen as well, so when she rounded another corner and darted into an alley, it didn't surprise her to see her family's fox getting shocked again by his collar.

What did surprise her however was everything else; his Ranger Scout Uniform, the same kind that was worn proudly by her brothers and sisters, was torn in many areas, and filthy in others. Black splotches that smelled foul spread across the shirt while off-coloured stains dotted other parts. The green of the uniform was now a strange mix between yellow, green and black and his hat was missing entirely. His shorts fared no better, and it seemed that the only part of his uniform that managed to escape unscathed was his neckerchief.

However her thoughts on his uniform strayed, and then froze altogether when she got close enough to see his face. In the distance she'd seen a metallic reflection, but now that she was closer she could see he was wearing a muzzle, but not the same one her parents had for him, no this was one that not only looked too constricting, the rings being too close for even a straw to sneak through, but it was also the wrong size, and looked to dig into his face painfully.

Suddenly his head shifted and he made eye contact with her, and she saw the exact same thing she'd seen three years ago, a terrified fox who knew the world was against him, but didn't know why, what he had done wrong or how to fix it.

But Judy wasn't who she used to be, and even if she wasn't able to fully grasp what was happening to him and inside his mind she wouldn't leave somebody she knew if they were in trouble like this, so she ran over to him, pulled his head forward and began to examine the straps.

"Hold still!" She demanded, and he did what she said. The straps were tight, but fortunately this muzzle was not like the one her parents' kept in another way, there was no slot for a key that they'd need to remove it.

It only took a minute for her to pull the straps and loosen the muzzle enough that the fox could yank it off and throw it away, and the second it was gone his simply slumped back into a ball and began to cry. Judy, ignoring what her instincts told her, leaned forward, wrapped her smaller arms around him and cried too.

When the fox let out a loud wail Judy wasn't surprised to find the light on his collar turning a solid red, but she didn't let go, not even when the tingle of electricity initially running through her became painful. She held on still through the second shock, and the third, and the fourth, losing count after that as her friend continue to cry his little eyes out.

* * *

The fox knew it was mean and selfish, but as the rabbit kept hugging him he prayed she'd never stop. Her being there somehow meant that the collar hurt a lot less, even if it would hurt her as well though it was now more of a bug bite as compared to the swat it was before, and eventually he reached out and returned the hug.

He tried his best not to think on what had happened. The ranger scouts hadn't used their knives to cut him, just his uniform but the pain from seeing his years worth of savings shredded before his eyes seemed to cut far deeper than if they'd actually hurt him physically. The uniform was his, his sole possession in a burrow where nothing else was, but it also served of a reminder of what it took to get it. He'd done countless favours for the rabbit to earn enough to afford it, and even though those were all happy memories, he couldn't smile at them because they ultimately led to this moment.

He'd run out from the building after they'd muzzled him, their laughter fading away behind him as he ran into down an alleyway and into a garbage can in his panic, and from that point on... he simply gave up. Something in him gave out and the will to fight had died. He'd stayed there until she found him, but for how long they remained the fox couldn't say. He didn't bother to count the shocks, and when his feelings began to die down and the shocks finally stopped he could no longer see the moon between the buildings, but he didn't care. He only wished there'd never come a day when his friend would leave him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A longer chapter here, and one which I really hope I didn't screw up. It's hard pulling back from something and asking: "Is this too much?" Several times I've gone over that in this chapter, and the ones following it. In the end I'm decently happy with what I've been able to get across, with children being cruel to one another because they don't yet understand how horrible that cruelty can really be to somebody else. If I had an adult do something similar then they'd simply be a complete monster.
> 
> I do notice that a lot of people hate the adults in part 1 because of what they said and did, however I get the feeling the next chapter might change a bit of that for you, if the start of this one didn't help with that at least somewhat. The Hopps in this story aren't complete monsters, and most of what we see about them is bound to be skewed as we're seeing it from the point of view of children. Kits are simply not going to be privy to everything that happens (and why it happens) until they become older and it's one of the reasons I chose to have this story told over the course of 12 years rather than all in a relatively short time frame.
> 
> That being said while this is definitely one of the more depressing parts of the story (I'd argue the most depressing) the uphill climb is going to be slow and not exactly steady. So if you want something with a happy ending, I'd recommend waiting until all 5 chapters are posted and this story says "Complete". If you're fine with the climb, then don't worry, I've got you covered. It was remarked in chapter 1 that this sort of treatment could cause very real psychological damage to a child, and you can rest assured I haven't forgotten that point.


	3. A Training Manual and a Play

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we see the aftermath of the Ranger Scouts meeting, and Judy gets answers as to why her family got a fox, and why they trained him in such a way. There's also going to be a longer author's note at the bottom addressing further what happens here.

The fox was never the same after that night, though his changes seemed very unusual to the little doe. His smiles, a rare sight before, seemed to happen more often now though every time he'd smile with her family it would be a sad or forced one, usually done alongside small head nods as he was receiving his instructions for the day. These continued over to the times in which they were alone, and even his behaviours changed, now he simply moved through all assigned tasks without complaint or care, not a shred of interest shown on his face regardless of what it was. It looked as if he'd given up, as if there wasn't a shred of the fox that had first arrived and to make matters worse, besides her nobody seemed to notice, or if they did they didn't seem to care.

The only times she could get him to act like how he did before was when they were alone and she had something interesting to comment on, but even in those conversations his emotions seemed to bleed away until all he seemed to do was nod. There was one major exception, Sundays when he had no tasks. On those days she could walk with him to town and they'd talk about whatever they felt like, though when they arrived he'd always split apart from her and go his own way, heading off somewhere after saying he wanted to be left alone for a little bit. Still, she tried to meet up with him any time she could if only because seeing him act like a robot in his usual chores was making her depressed on a level that was hard for her to explain.

What hit her hardest perhaps, was the next Christmas. Like all the times before it the fox would hand out presents, yet this time his face was almost entirely devoid of expression, and his collar light didn't stray from green once, not even when everyone opened and began to show off their gifts.

Perhaps if her parents hadn't said anything she might have eventually given up on him, but she the words out of her mother and father's mouths forever changing how she viewed the fox:

It started when he was seated in between them, just as he'd always seat near them during the past years, however this time there were proud looks on both her parents faces, "You've been very good this year." Her dad said with a little surprise, and her mother reached over to scratch behind his ears. Oddly enough, he tilted his head into her hand at that, and Judy made sure to remember it for later.

Aside from the tilt however, the fox remained silent. Her parents seemed happy enough with the result however, and soon her mother was discussing something that intrigued her little kit: "Looks like the manual was right after all Stu, I guess we won't need it any more." She spoke with relief, and Judy moved closer.

"I don't know Bon, maybe we should keep it just in case, even if he is acting like a proper fox." Her father commented back, as if the fox wasn't there or couldn't hear them.

'A proper fox.' The rest of their conversation was lost to her as something inside Judy's mind had snapped at that. This was what they had expected, what they had wanted from him? A servant who hid how sad they were for fear of a shocking if they didn't? Judy knew what proper training was by now, or at least she thought she knew. She at least knew that when she turned 10 her studies would include Botany along with her regular schoolwork, as well as training on how to help run the farm, and in her opinion there had been no reason to train and treat the fox as they had.

What became clearer after Christmas though, was that her parents (and her family at large) didn't see the fox as a mammal, they saw him as a tool, using him as she used her pencils at school. Any time he'd acted differently than they'd expected they would attempt to make sure that would never happen again in the most direct way possible, and always after reading out of that 'training manual' her parents carried around.

When the new year rolled around, another question occurred to her, how much longer was this going to go on for?

* * *

Sometime in January, Judy would go up to her father and ask him a very important question which would lead to one of the most life-changing conversations in her life, though at the time neither of them realized how important it would become.

"Dad?" She asked as he made his way through the halls.

"Yes Lizzie?" He asked back.

"Judy!" She corrected, a little annoyed at being forgotten again.

"Judy- Sorry Jude, that's what I meant." He quickly stated as he remembered the nickname she'd grown used to by now. "So what's my Jude need?" His mood seemed to pick up a little bit since remembering her name, or maybe that was because he was still feeling the 'new year cheer' as her family liked to say.

"I've got a question about the fox." She stated as she hopped up beside him, trying to keep pace with his longer strides.

"What about him?" Her father asked back, his tone of voice no longer as pleasant.

"How long do we get to keep him for?" She asked, and her father stopped in his tracks, a mystified expression on his face.

He let out a laugh before he continued walking, his confusion quickly vanishing as he tussled the fur on the top of her head. "Are you worried about him leaving us Jude?" He asked as she hopped up next to him again, but she didn't answer, choosing to look away instead. "Well you don't have to worry about a thing, we own him for his entire life!" Her father bragged.

"He's staying with us forever?" She asked in shock and her father nodded. "What about his parents?" She continued, only to see her father stop, turn around and get down on one knee to look her in the eye.

"Jude, normally we'd save this for when you're older but..." He trailed off as he looked around, but the normally busy hall was deserted, everyone being too busy with their gifts, or in keeping each other company. "Well, his parents were the ones who sold him to us."

She blinked at that, her brain still being a little too young to fully understand what he meant. "They sold their own kit? For money?" She asked in disbelief, and her father nodded.

Her father took in a deep breath before speaking: "You'll understand better when you get older Judy, but they weren't able to take care of themselves, and they definitely weren't in any condition to take care of a kit. Do you know what a shelter is?" She shook her head. "A shelter is a place where poor predators can live while paying very little. Think of it like our Warren, but above ground and full of predators." Her eyes widened at that. A burrow above ground? What would that be like?

Taking his daughters' silence for understanding, Stu continued: "It's not good to live in shelters Jude, the food's bad, they're dirty, and it's very easy for a kit to get sick and die in them. We adopted the fox because his own parents couldn't take care of him and were worried he'd get sick and die." Now Judy nodded, she could understand the reasoning for that, and it helped her ease some of the worries about her parents.

"So we adopted him then?" She asked back, wondering if this technically made him her brother.

"No, we bought him. He's still technically our property." Stu corrected, holding up a finger for emphasis. "In the deal we made with them, we'd buy and keep him, he'd work for us and in return we'd pay with money and crops." He confirmed.

"But... I haven't seen any foxes around, do we drive their food to them?" She wondered aloud.

"No bun, they lied to us." Her father stated with a very serious face, one which she was surprised at. "We were supposed to get the fox when he was five, but they lied and told us that he was sick when we came to visit, or they'd tell us he was still too young, or they'd make up anything they could to keep us giving them money and food. They broke the law, Jude." He was frowning at her now, and she understood exactly how serious that was.

"So then what?" She asked, very interested in where the story was going.

"We gave them a choice, either they gave us the kit and we stopped giving them everything, or we'd take them to the police, and put them both in prison." He spoke proudly about that last part, though Judy wasn't sure why. "They chose to give us their kit, and that's why we have him now."

"But why did we take him in then? If they broke the law, then wouldn't it be better for them to get arrested and for the fox to go to an orphanage?" She asked back, trying to figure out why her family would take the fox when it was clear from his arrival that nobody else wanted him there.

"No Jude, there were no predator orphanages where we got him. If we left him in the city there would be a good chance he'd still be living in the shelter, and then he could get sick and die, or other terrible things could happen to him. At least here he's fed, clothed and all he has to do are a few chores." Explained her father, and she could see a few of the merits from his points, even if she thought he was understating the downsides by a lot.

"Does he have a name?" She asked and her father shook his head.

Her father stood back on his feet and leaned back, apparently tired of being on his knees. "I don't know if he ever did Jude, whenever we were with them they never called him by a first name, and he never even got his official papers until we bought him." He stood up when he was finished.

"They must have called him something!" Judy insisted back.

"They only ever called him by his last name. Now, why are you so curious about our fox?" Answered her father, and the tone in which he said it told her he was about done with this. She resolved later to make sure and find out what his last name was before stating what was really on her mind:

"I don't think he's happy." She answered and her father shrugged, a saddened look creeping on his face.

"I'm sorry to hear that Jude." Her father stated with a tenderness that surprised her. "We feed him, clothe him, give him a warm place to stay and all we ask is that he help us around the house, I know for a fact he's doing a lot better here than many other predators in other homes, and like I said it's much better than being in that shelter." Her dad began to walk away when he finished talking, and Judy quickly caught up to him.

"I think we might have been training him wrong." She finally spoke her mind as she moved beside her dad.

"Oh really?" Asked her father, an eyebrow raising before a smile came onto his face. "Tell you what Jude, sometime later I'll give you the training manual we use, you can read through it and then we can talk about it later, how's that sound?"

That gave her pause, and soon she was nodding, dropping her previous point in favour of this new development, though once the two parted ways she thought back on the conversation.

It certainly sounded as if he sympathized with her, however it also sounded is if he wouldn't do anything to help. It just seemed wrong to hear one of her family members care so little about the happiness of another mammal, as if somebody else had replaced her dad, and Judy remembered the previous times any one of her siblings was sad.

If somebody had a bad day it was their first priority to cheer them up again. If somebody got badly hurt, they would immediately be taken care of by everyone around them, and this would last until they made a full recovery. If somebody had something truly terrible happen to them, then her family would go to any and every length possible to help them recover if possible, or assist with their life in any way they could if they were scarred for life from the incident.

Nothing was worse than a depressed or hurt rabbit, not to her family, and not to any other rabbit family she'd talked to at school. However it had never occurred to her that this attitude would only apply to rabbits.

* * *

Later on her father would keep his word, and he would give her the training manual to read briefly. It wouldn't take too long before she decided it was one of the worst books she'd ever read, though that was only because it became very clear why the adults in her family treated the fox the way they did.

"A predator must be... 'broken in' before they can be fully domesticated?" She read aloud from the book when she'd tucked herself away in a small closet. This was something she wanted to do privately, and she didn't need any more siblings teasing her about 'foxy stuff'. It was just as well, if anybody saw her face as she turned the pages they'd definitely have come over to see what she was reading.

'Predators are territorial, and given to aggressive displays to prove that what is theirs remains as theirs, and these displays can manifest as anything from growling, to physical acts. A territorial predator is a dangerous and rebellious predator, so to combat this do not give your predator anything that can be considered theirs. Everything you give them must be made clear that it is actually yours, and they happen to be using it. The only exception is their den, as all predators need at least one space they can call their own. Failure to provide a den could cause major psychological damage to a predator and interfere with domestication.' That certainly explained a lot. It explained why he was only given one small room, and why he wasn't allowed any toys of any kind.

Her ears twitched and she lowered the book briefly as she considered another point: Had she broken this when she paid him money to help her? He'd used it to buy the ranger scout uniform, that was something that would definitely be his, and look where he was now after it was destroyed. 'I shouldn't have done that.' She thought to herself briefly, but the thought of giving the book any kind of credit was ruined as soon as she came to its next point:

'To assist with domestication, it is recommended that your predator be collared as soon as possible. The earlier they begin living with their collar, the better, as not only will it help them adjust, but it will also help them understand that aggressive physical acts, such as those protecting what they consider their territory, should not be tolerated. It would also be a good idea to invest in a muzzle and claw-guards, so that your predator understands they should not use their claws or teeth against any other. Both implements will help in adjusting them to this mindset.' That didn't sound true at all. The fox was utterly miserable with with guards and muzzle on, and what did they teach that couldn't be taught with words and maybe having him wear them as a punishment? It wasn't as if the fox had any desire to use them against anyone else before right?

Judy turned a few more pages, but stopped when the next interesting bit of info came to light: 'Occasionally you'll need to punish unwanted behaviour, in order for it to cease. In such cases, a light swat should be all that is needed, or in more severe cases, a jolt from their collar would do. Do not be worried about inflicting lasting harm on your predator, as studies have shown that a lighter punishment earlier in their life, helps fix bad habits that might be developing.' That was food for thought, though not because she believed it. At least it helped explain why the fox always seemed to get the worst punishments, and turning a page Judy was surprised to find a very detailed set of pictured defining where and how to hit a younger predator without causing real damage, all in the name of 'fixing' them.

After that section came a large one about the dietary needs of predators, and it included a lot of information that Judy hadn't considered before. Like everyone else she knew they used to eat meat, but she never thought that they couldn't survive on the same diet she did. Still, she resolved to double-check this information at the earliest opportunity as this book was questionable at best.

The final straw came a few pages later, when she came to one of the mid-way steps in domesticating a predator: 'Chapter 3: Set a Routine.' The book explained that most predators flourished when they were given a set of tasks to accomplish across any given day, and that regardless of species, it was always best to set a wakeup time and a curfew. It had sounded normal enough, after all she had the same thing, right up until she came across a section of the book stating how to set a predator's sleep schedule:

'You must not enter a predator's den to wake them. Doing so goes against the idea that this space is theirs and theirs alone. Additionally they must not have an alarm clock or radio, as this could be eventually misconstrued as something that is theirs. In some cases it is possible to wake a predator by knocking on the door, but in most cases, a light shock on a remote collar's lowest setting would do well in waking up and motivating your predator.' Judy shut the book right then and there. She didn't care how much of a charge the collars were supposed to be, she didn't care if this was only supposed to be a temporary measure until the fox could wake up on his own, this was going too far, even for her young mind.

She would return the book that evening, thanking her father for lending it to her while choosing not to pursue the discussion of the book. In her mind it was vile yet for years her parents had been treating it as if it held the answers, and right now she didn't want to think about it further. After handing it over she almost missed her father smile and nod, only noticing when he thanked her by confusing her name with somebody else's again.

* * *

Something Judy learned quickly from observing the fox after that point, was that most of the negatives of the book seemed to have faded away. Whichever parent gave him his daily tasks clearly no longer used the remote to wake him and he hadn't been disciplined in any way over a year, but the other negatives remained. She did attempt to do things about them, pestering her parents if she could give something to the fox, asking why she couldn't, but for once her father seemed to remember that she'd read the book, so he'd always respond with a frown and say "You know why we can't."

When Judy turned 9, she was told to think about what she wanted to be when she grew up. Nearly everyone in her class wanted to be farmers, and it made sense, not only were their parents and siblings likely all farmers, but being a farmer was likely what they'd been told they were going to be, and farmers also had the advantage of never going hungry.

Judy however didn't agree with the rest of her class. After finding him in that alley and after reading the training manual she'd been occasionally wondering on how to help the fox, and many others either like him, or worse off. She'd since looked up the existence of shelters too, using some books on 'predator culture' as it was called over at the library, and each new tale or insight further led her to wanting to help others. This desire didn't just extend to her fox or predators she hadn't met yet, occasionally somebody would require help in town, or she'd see somebody being bullied at school, and she would immediately step forward to assist the unfortunate mammal in any way she could.

This all cumulated during one day when she found herself pondering over her homework, the fox's tail tucked under an arm as he worked on his own studies, while she looked at her book without interest. Pondering various thoughts, she found herself thinking about the what little he'd told her on the ranger scouts meeting, and exactly how those children had reacted to him for simply being what he was. She would never be like that, no matter what, and she'd do anything she could to make sure nobody else would either. Suddenly it hit her and she knew exactly what she wanted to be.

What she'd occasionally see on T.V. were cop shows, and though she found them interesting and had told the fox all about them she hadn't considered what it would be like to be in their shoes. The mammals in those cop shows did not work for the money, or for food, or for anything beyond helping others and making the world a better place.

'I want to make the world a better place!' She thought proudly to herself, nodding as she determined she should become a police officer. She'd be able to help any mammal in need, and with the resources the cops had... maybe she'd even be able to find and help the fox's parents! Her eyes had gone wide at the thought. If she could find them then maybe they'd come to see their son, and maybe then the fox wouldn't be so sad.

The downside however was that it would take years for her to become a police officer, she knew she'd have to grow twice as old, and become much stronger, much faster, and she'd have to learn how to fight!

* * *

Sometime after she'd found her new passion Judy would ask her parents to put her in a martial-arts class, and they would agree. Many of their kits had already taken such courses so it was a simple matter of signing her up. She would attend most times that she could, leaving after every second school-day, going three times a week, and slowly her muscles and endurance began to be developed in a way that was entirely separate from a farmer's.

This was one of the few things that she chose to do where she had everyone's approval, most of them thinking that it was a good thing for a kit to learn how to fight, that way they'd be able to deal with any predator that might attack them. For her part Judy found that train of thought insulting, after all she was friends with her family's fox, Bunnyburrow consisted of more than 99% prey, and thinking that she'd need it to fight off another predator in a town where it was rare to see a even a single predator passing through was absurd.

Unfortunately in the summer of her 9th birthday, they were proven right.

Judy participated in a school play, reflecting on how mammals had come as a whole, starting off as savages who walked on all fours, back when they had paws instead of hands and feet, back when the predators would eat prey, and she put everything she had into it. First she convinced the project manager to do the play on Sunday, specifically during the county fair so that a certain fox could be in the crowd (though she couldn't guarantee if he'd come watch or not). Secondly she'd convinced a land-owner to lend them his barn to host the play in, and thirdly she'd been allowed to say what she really wanted to be in front of everyone.

It hadn't gone over as well as it could have, but the reaction she'd gotten was one she'd been expecting. Shock and horror from her family, stunned surprise from every other rabbit, and derision from some of the bullies who'd shown up to watch.

Sadly, one of those bullies happened to be a fox.

Bunnyburrow's laws in regards to when predators needed to wear their collars gave a lot of leeway to predator families as to when their kits had to be collared. At the time she had thought that was because there wasn't much of a need for stricter laws, considering there were only three predator families living in the area. There were some tigers who ran an orchard, there were stoats who worked in the back of a bank, and there was a fox family, the Greys who ran a bakery. The only common thread between all of the families was that as of yet, none of their kits wore collars as kits were allowed to be without them until the age of 10, unless their family decided to make their children wear them earlier. It was for this reason that the fox was allowed to have his early, as her family had decided to train him with it. There were still restrictions on uncollared predators however, as none of them could attend certain events (although they could attend fairs), or enter certain areas, or even attend public schools.

This other fox though was far more fortunate than the one she knew. Unlike her family's fox Gideon Grey was big, much bigger than her, and almost at the height of an adult rabbit, even though he was only 9. Judy had heard him brag that he was hitting his 'growth spurt' early, and it gave him a lot of advantages, such as being able to pin down a white-belt when she came to stop him from stealing her friend's tickets.

It was shortly after the play when it had happened, Judy had seen Gideon follow after some lambs that she knew, so she had followed. When she saw him steal their tickets she grew mad, and immediately threw herself in to try stopping the theft in question.

She learned a very important lesson in humility that day, of not overestimating herself or underestimating her opponent, and it was one that she would carry with her for the rest of her life. When she'd demanded the tickets back the fox had mocked her. She warned him that she'd been taking martial-arts classes and in response he pushed her, and when she kicked him back he wasn't knocked through the air like how she'd envisioned, in fact he barely seemed hurt.

That was when she learned that doing the right thing could have permanent consequences, as Gideon tackled her, exposed his claws, and slashed across her left cheek.

The cuts were deep enough that they would scar, and the imprint they had on her face would always be felt, being three lines that anyone could feel when they touched her face, though eventually the fur would cover them most of the time. It was a small consolation that he'd been too distracted at scarring her face to notice when she stole the tickets back from him while he was busy mocking her further, and that was the last time she ever saw Gideon Grey. She'd later hear how his family was forced to move after they lost nearly all traffic from the community for their bakery, and at a point she wondered if she'd ever have to face a similar situation again.

The thought of being caught by a much stronger mammal, pinned down and at their mercy was a terrifying one, and a good motivator. It made her more determined to train harder, become stronger, run faster, to make herself tougher, and it also had the side effect of making her unintentionally wary around her fox friend.

Once she'd been treated for the cuts and was alone in her room, he'd knocked on her door and asked to see her. It had been late and he was no doubt here after finishing all of his tasks, but she sent him away. The following week she tried to avoid him, and even meeting him briefly on the weekends had her glancing at his claws more often than before, wondering what he might do to her or her family had he not been wearing the collar. It was a silly thought, one in which she felt shame for even thinking about her friend, but it did make her uncomfortable enough that in the few times she did meet, she made no attempt to get close to him or the sharp points on the ends of his fingertips and even meeting his gaze was a challenge.

Perhaps if she hadn't let it get to her so much, she would have noticed the pain in his eyes when he saw her come or leave, and she might have noticed the bruises and asked about them, for her family had taken something else away from the incident. While Judy had learned being in the right would sometimes hurt, that she couldn't win every battle, and that she shouldn't overestimate her own abilities, her family would learn that a fox had scarred one of their own, and very few among them cared which fox it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've started writing a lot of stories, the vast majority of which have never been put online because I do not like posting anything before I finish it. I might make adjustments to it later, but I want a story that has a decently satisfying start, middle, and end.
> 
> That being said I do sometimes wonder about the direction my stories could have taken had some things gone a bit differently. Had Judy never talked to Stu, or had Stu responded differently, the upcoming chapters might be entirely different. Unfortunately I haven't explored that avenue and I likely never will, so we'll probably never know.
> 
> Other ways this story could have been different is if the parents did give up their kit like they'd promised. To put it simply, the Hopps clan was on fairly decent speaking terms with them before the lie, and in those cases maybe, just maybe, the parents might have been able to save up and then use the money to move out into the country, preferably to work near a farm where their son was staying.
> 
> In any case, I debated waiting this long before explaining the motivation behind them buying the fox, and to be honest I'm glad I did for a few reasons. A younger Judy wouldn't have understood such behaviour, and even her current self has trouble grasping it. Explaining it all away too early would feel like a cheat since the story is told primarily through her eyes, and so certain aspects are going to have to wait until she can understand them. I'm toeing the line explaining it this early but I felt waiting longer would be bad in the long run.
> 
> Finally, the treatment of Nick earlier sparked outrage in the comments/reviews, and I'm glad it did for a couple of reasons. The main one is for those emotions to get confused when people read this chapter, as I don't think Bonnie and Stu are terrible people, just misguided and confused. They entered into a situation without thinking it through all the way, and then looked for a way out that they could easily understand, hence the training manual. This is something that I've unfortunately witnessed in real life, not just with pets being trained in certain ways (with similar training manuals), but also with people. When certain people have a responsibility to look after another living thing, be it a person or animal, sometimes their brain seems like it turns off and they do what other people suggest, even if they've never before seemed that cold-hearted or if they'd normally think the suggestions go too far. In those cases they write it off with such statements like "they know what they're talking about and I don't" or "other people have tried this and it worked for them" and I cannot understand why they'd choose to do that. Perhaps it's the fear of screwing things up clouding their ability to think properly, or maybe they've just convinced themselves that this is the only way that it can be done. In either case, it's something I find very sad, and I wanted to bring across that feeling in this work.
> 
> Now with that in mind, if you want to hold it against them that they took an easy way out and didn't question the training manual, then by all means, feel free to do so. I'm not trying to 'redeem' them, just explain them and ultimately using it was still their choice, just as it was their choice on whether or not to take in a predator that had a very high chance of dying without their help (the chance of death in shelters for a fox kit in this story is the same for actual fox kits in the wild, aka 60-70%). To be honest, I'm not sure which would be preferable at the start if his parents chosen to give him up. If they had then they could have remained on good speaking terms and given the Hopps guidance, however that wouldn't mean he'd grow up free of everything that happens in this story (as a lot of it would remain the same), and if the Hopps chose not to take him at all, there's a very high chance he'd never even have reached his seventh birthday, let alone become ten or more.


	4. Broken and a Stronger Bond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've gotten remarks lately over on fanfiction.net about the tags I used there on this story, though personally I do think they're fitting. I'd labelled it as hurt/comfort/romance because all three of those things do happen as the story goes along, and they happen in that specific order. Still, I'm going to adjust the summary for the story so that people don't come in seeing a story that talks about 'the cruelties of the world she lives in' and expect some happy romp.
> 
> That aside I'm not bitter at all, maybe a little confused at times as to what they were expecting, but I do get why people feel the way they do about this. When I started this story I knew it wouldn't be for everyone, and I am pleased that other people can make up their own minds about what's happening in the story, because that was one of the reasons I wrote it, to get people thinking. As a quickly example, I mean it when I say that I find it hard to examine the question: 'Is this sort of slavery better than an almost guaranteed death?' Neither situation is a good one (which is why I have a hard time choosing), and I'm not trying to present them as such, I simply took the one of those two scenarios that could be made into a story and did that. In no way am I trying to defend slavery or present it in a positive light, in fact it's quite the opposite, with one of the larger examples I can give being at the end of this chapter.
> 
> Another question that was asked was 'What am I trying to do?' That's rather simple, what I'm trying to do is tell a story of misguided, occasionally scared and ultimately ignorant individuals who own and are taking care of somebody that they initially knew next to nothing about, and I'm telling it through the eyes of a child as she ages over the course of 12 years and matures emotionally as a result of the events within.
> 
> In the end that's what this story is, it's about the conscious development of compassion for somebody else, despite the environment you're living in telling you that this is a bad idea. It's about seeing something wrong and trying to help where you can, it's about moving past fears, and ultimately it's about overcoming the apathy of those around you for the less fortunate.
> 
> Granted this story still isn't done yet and that message won't be conveyed fully until it is.
> 
> EDIT: I decided to include a bit that was originally in this chapter but was moved to the next one, as I think waiting longer to bring it up would be detrimental to the story.

In the days when her face was still healing Judy would occasionally hear mutters about 'that horrible fox' from her siblings, or she'd hear mentions of what they wanted to do to him. Originally she thought they were talking about Gideon, and while she still harbored resentment towards him, she was trying her best to move past it, instead choosing to focus on her own studies and her growing aptitude with martial arts.

She'd never thought that they would be talking about another fox much closer to home, and she never thought that by choosing to spend time away from him that he'd be left defenceless against the more vengeful members of her family. It didn't help that in a family numbering the triple digits, rumours could distort the truth quickly, and it had never occurred to her that there'd be a need to set the record straight, at least not until she heard mentions of a fight against 'the fox'.

That set off alarm bells in her head, because the kits passing by made it clear that the fight was in their own home, and there was no way for Gideon Grey to be here. With great worry she followed after the kits that had told her and a few others about it, and ran into a kit room, only hoping she could arrive in time to stop anything serious from happening.

She would learn fully later that day the extent of the abuse that had been given to him by her siblings, and it was a testament to the fox's abilities that he took the abuse so well, over the days a kick would hit him here, or a punch would land there, but it had never broken into a full-on fight, at least not until now, and definitely not against her brother Timothy.

Timothy had turned 13, and like many kits of that age he was angry and rebellious, though he did still care about his family, and when her cheek had been slashed he was one of the most vocal supporters in going after 'the fox'. It wasn't much of a surprise to see him there when she pushed, shoved and hopped over her intervening siblings to get to the front to find out what was really going on, and once there she could see exactly why Timothy was so far ahead of her in her martial-arts classes. The buck moved and feinted with a grace and speed Judy hoped to one day accomplish, while the fox was backed into a corner and doing his best to block punches and kicks, though he was very obviously in pain.

"Stop it Tim!" She yelled out as she rushed forward, only to find herself stopped by half a dozen hands as her siblings grabbed hold of her and prevented her from rushing to the fox's aid.

"Hey Jude." Tim stated, turning to face her. "I'd thought you'd be happy to see a fox get beat up, weren't you talking about how you wanted to get even?" He asked with a wide smile.

"That was against Gideon, not him!" She yelled back, fighting against her siblings as she pointed at the fox, and feeling guilty she'd even said anything to her family at all in regards to the incident.

The fox spoke up then, his face pained, his voice scared: "Timothy, please tell me what I did wrong-" He was cut off as the rabbit spun back to him.

"Shut up fox!" The rabbit belted out as a foot flew up for a kick, and landed against the fox's lower left arm. Judy heard a *crack* and then the fox's arm bent in such a way that should have been impossible, slightly falling to the side as if he had an extra elbow just past his normal one.

Judy froze as she stared, the hands holding her let go in shock, and even Timothy seemed stunned by what happened. The silence didn't last long, as the light on the fox's collar flashed to yellow, and then red as he opened his mouth and the loudest scream Judy had ever heard erupted from it.

Immediately she ran towards her friend, shoving Timothy out of the way as she grabbed hold of the fox, knowing that he'd hurt less from his collar so long as she touched him, but his screaming didn't stop. Not when he fell backwards and rested his bent arm on his knees, not when his collar temporarily flashed back to yellow when the red charge faded, only to switch back again a second later and not when most of the rabbits began leaving the room as it was obvious to everyone involved that the fight was over, and nothing good could come from this. A few remained, and this number included Timothy, though Judy would be at a loss to say why.

The fox screamed and screamed, the noise eventually attracting the adult rabbits, who in turn ran to grab Judy's mom and dad. When they came into the room and saw the fox, both of their surprised stares immediately turned to barely constrained anger, and only now did the fox's screaming die down to a whimper, his eyes wide and focused on the two heads of the household.

"Who did this?!" Her mother demanded as she pointed at bent arm.

"Timmy did it!" Judy yelled back, soon the rest of the kits were shouting it too, most of them glaring at the surprised buck.

"I-I didn't mean to!" Timothy stammered out, though the glaring Judy didn't care, and it seemed that nobody else in the room did either.

"Fox, come." Her dad stated suddenly, looking back at the fox. Though he whimpered as he stood to his feet, his bent arm cradled by his good one, his collar had stopped shocking him but remained on yellow. "Come, we'll get you to a doctor right away." Her dad continued as he crouched down on a knee, notes of compassion in his voice and a kind look on his face.

The fox moved over to him before walking out after him. When they were gone her mother shooed the rabbits in the middle of the door away, closed it, and then spun towards Timothy with an anger in her eyes Judy had never seen before.

"Do you know what you've done?!" Her mother demanded, and the teenage kit quailed.

"I'm sorry mom!" He answered back, and the still rational part of Judy's mind thought he sounded like he'd meant it.

"Sorry's not going to fix his broken arm!" Her mother belted out as she crossed the distance between her and the buck, Judy's sibling taking half a step back for every step their mother took forward. "You have no idea what this means!" Her mother continued, eventually cornering the buck against a wall.

"I'm sorr-" Timothy began, only to be cut off as her mother shot her hands out and smacked him across the top of the head. "OW! That hurts!" Spoke her brother as his hands shot up to cover the spot she'd hit. Judy's anger slowly faded, replaced by shock as she watched her mother. Occasionally they'd get little smacks on the head when they were younger and had done something bad, but it was never enough to make somebody like Timothy react like this.

"This is nothing compared to what you just did!" Yelled back her mother, "And if anything like this ever happens again you'll get far worse, understand?!" Her glaring mother stated as she spun around to face the rest of the room. The kits still there nodding quickly. "Good." She finished before storming out of the room.

Many of them had started crying in the room, not least of which was Timothy, and even Judy had begun tearing up at the display. Their pain however didn't come from the fact that any of them had been physically hurt, instead it came from the realization that they'd caused so much distress to members of their family that they still loved dearly. There was no short supply of siblings willing to help comfort her brother, rushing to his aid now that their mother was gone so Judy went out of the room instead, intent on finding her fox friend so she could see what state he was in, and worried about how bad a 'broken arm' could be.

It would take some time, but she'd eventually find the fox in his room, her parents standing over him and talking to the doctor. Her first thought was that they were going against the training manual, but that thought faded fast as she listened into their conversation:

"You didn't have to do that Bon." Her father had stated when her mother told him what had happened.

"Stu, if we don't put a stop to this sort of behaviour now, how much worse do you think it'll get? It should never have gotten this bad in the first place." She stated as Judy heard her mother shift around.

"I know Bon, but that was too harsh." He admonished.

"I think she's right." A new voice spoke, one Judy recognized as their family's doctor, Evan Jumper. "You should also be thankful that nobody else got in the way, I'm glad I'm treating a fox and not little Judy again."

While Judy was glad the doctor could at least remember her name, she didn't need a reminder of her scars right now. "Oh 'that' would have been terrible." Agreed her mother quickly, and Judy froze on the spot. "But we do need to stop this behaviour before it gets any worse."

The words had been spoken in haste and without any sort of forethought, as they were just meant to deflect the topic at hand and nobody involved in that conversation would think anything of them. To Judy however, it almost made it sound as if that would be terrible, yet this was not. It brought tears to her eyes as for the first time in her life felt a loathing towards her parents. The feeling was entirely alien to her, and it didn't take long for her to decide she didn't like it, so she hid in a supply closet to sort this through, only coming out once she was certain the doctor and her parents were gone.

After she'd slipped out, she managed to sneak her way into the fox's room to find him staring at the ceiling, a dopey expression on his face, and a cast around his formerly broken arm. Judy was aware of why he was smiling like that, you didn't live on a farm without a few accidents occurring, and even with her they'd given her some minor drugs to take away the pain of the cuts on her cheek. She knew it made some of them a little 'loopy' as her older siblings called them, but even if the fox was loopy she was certain he could still use a friend.

As she approached she was slow, hesitant and it felt like the scars on her left cheek were heating up in warning, but then he made eye contact, and a great big happy smile would appear on his face. Right then she thought back to the fight, of him doing everything he could to get away from Timothy or block his attacks while doing nothing to fight back, and that was when she realized fully who was in front of her. She wasn't looking at a predator who could or would claw at her face even if he wasn't wearing her collar, she was looking at her friend who'd never hurt anyone else, and right now he was in pain even if he didn't know it.

She approached and took his good hand in hers, jumping slightly when she felt the points at the ends of his fingers bump lightly against her skin, but that was it. There was nothing threatening from him, no snarl and the claws didn't extend at all. Instead, his arm slowly moved out, wrapping around her waist and pulling her close to his side, the fox letting out an odd sound that was almost a purr. It intensified as she slowly reached up and scratched behind his ears, and soon she could feel all of the tension and fear that had been unintentionally building up within her drain.

She would remain there until he fell asleep, and then she'd cry a little bit more before sneaking out of the room and going back to hers, determined to do something, anything to help the fox out of his current situation. Not just because he was her friend, but also to help ease the guilt in unknowingly letting it get this far. She resolved to make sure to help him in any way he could while he recovered, especially if that involved assisting in whatever tasks he was still made to do.

* * *

Like the Scouts incident from before, the fox was left forever changed from that day onward, though it wasn't in a way that Judy would have predicted. He no longer acted as if he was some sort of convincing fox-robot going through the tasks he was assigned, instead actual emotions appeared on his face once again, though she was unable to tell what they were. Sometimes they looked almost like a smirk, sometimes they looked a little like a sneer, and sometimes he just looked bored. In the time she spent with him she'd ask him what he was thinking about when he made those emotions, and in return he'd simply smile an honest smile and shake his head. It was behaviour he likely wouldn't be able to get away with, had most of her family not become a lot more lenient since the incident.

While some of her most spiteful siblings still held a grudge against foxes, nothing would ever be remotely as bad as the day Timothy broke his arm. Almost all of the siblings still going after him scaled their works down to mere pranks, however even that began backfiring as the fox seemed to learn an interesting way of defending himself:

"I'm sorry Mrs. Hopps, I could have done that much sooner but I needed to clean up the dishes that broke when I accidentally bumped into George." That was just one of many examples of excuses he began to fashion while working. Anything that happened against him was seen as an intentional attack, and any rabbit who was after him would find themselves exaggerated in a crime, and then punished appropriately by the heads of the household. Usually they would be given the tasks he was supposed to do, which was a nice bonus as his own tasks grew considerably lighter since his arm was broken. Sometimes they would find their meals or allowance cut, or they might be barred from leaving for club events they were in for a while. Even if it was something very innocuous they'd done to him while he wasn't even working on a task, he'd still make up something that broke or was damaged, and the offending member would find themselves caught soon enough.

Of course the kits in question did try to defend themselves against the accusations, however to Judy's surprise her parents would usually take a fox's word over their own kin. It wasn't because they trusted him more however, these were decisions made out of fear.

After his arm was broken it didn't take long for the adults in the family to begin having a very real fear of the kits becoming unruly not to the fox, but to each other if they let even a single bad seed grow. He'd found this out when Judy had overheard and initially laughed off this fear to the fox. It was absurd as she did slowly learn about what had been happening to him after she'd had her face slashed, but it wasn't as if the kits had gotten more violent with each other after the things they did to him. Still, the fox took this information and quickly found a way for him to capitalize on it. If saying that somebody did something to him didn't get them what he'd thought was an appropriate punishment, then all he needed to do was take it a step further, and wait until sibling rivalry eventually caused them to disagree with each other. Then he'd slightly exaggerate what had happened or what they were doing to each other, and in a strange way justice would be served.

It would take a while before Judy figured out that the strange emotions he showed was when he was planning something, and when she did she confronted him about it. To his credit he was honest in telling her at that point, and though she loved her family, it wasn't hard to see why he was doing it, at least at first.

* * *

While Judy initially found the fox's behaviour understandable, right now she was having a hard time walking down the street towards town with him. This was because just yesterday, he'd told a lie about what had happened with one of her siblings, and he told it with a straight face to her mother. There had been no pranks against him for at least a week, nobody else had fought each other, in fact everyone was on the best behaviour they'd been on in a while since the fox had started exaggerating, but it seemed that after a week, he simply wanted somebody else to get punished for nothing.

It bothered her so much as they walked that she had a hard time looking over at him, despite his happy smile and the bounce in his step. The jolly swing of his good arm and even the rocking of the one in the case didn't do much to distract her from the issue at hand. The silence was deafening and draining, and about at the halfway mark it took its toll on her, slowing her steps until she stopped altogether, the confused vulpine looking back at her as he stopped too.

"Fox, why did you lie about Tom?" She asked him sadly.

"What do you mean?" His confused response sounded perfect, as if he didn't know what she was talking about, and she frowned.

"I know you lied about Tom, why did you do it?" She demanded, and the fox frowned.

"Because he hurt me before." He stated back, enough anger in his voice to make his collar light go yellow.

"I thought you already got him punished for before!" Judy yelled back as she moved towards him.

The fox let out a snort. "He deserved it." Came his callous reply, and it made Judy's eyes widen.

"He hasn't done anything to you in a while now! Just yesterday he wasn't hiding food in his pockets, he was cleaning off the dishes on the table to help you!" She retorted and his frown hardened further.

"He's just trying to look nice so I forget that he hurt me!" He shouted back.

"He's trying to help, why are you hurting somebody that just tried to be nice to you?" She asked as the anger slowly drained out of her voice, sadness taking over as she looked at the fox. His frown turned into a glare and she could see his good arm shake.

"Maybe I don't want him to be-" His shout was cut off as his eyes widened as his collar light flashed red, and then his body began to twitch, before he ultimately fell down on his knees as his collar light flashed green. Judy looked down at him sadly as she waited for him to continue, only for her sadness to turn to worry when the fox didn't move.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she moved a little closer, leaning down slightly to put their head at the same level. Then the fox's eyes opened, and they were swimming with tears. Suddenly he didn't look like how he did in the past weeks, now he looked once more like he did right after his arm had broken, as if he hadn't healed at all and could still feel the pain.

"I don't want them to be nice." He began as his eyes slowly locked onto hers. "I know that they're not, I know it's just a trick, because they're mean, cruel and- and-" He began to stutter by the end as his collar light flashed to yellow.

Recognizing what was going to happen, Judy jumped forward and grabbed him into a hug, her head below his right when the light changed to red, the shock enveloping them both. When it subsided she could feel a wet spot right on the top of her head as the fox's tears began dripping down. "They're all just pretending to be nice and I don't know why." He whispered out, and she could feel her heart sink, right before another shock enveloped them both.

When it faded she spoke up with a shaky voice: "Even if they're just pretending..." Her voice trailed off as a better thought came into her head, one involving an incident she'd nearly forgotten about. "Do you remember when they used to lie about what you did to get candy?" She asked and he nodded. "Please don't be like that, don't lie to try and get even."

There was a sniffle, before a final shock ran through their bodies. That was followed by a weak nod and the fox mumbling "Okay." Judy decided it would have to be good enough.

The two remained there until the fox moved to stand, and then they'd continue into town, Judy keeping herself close to his side, providing a shoulder to lean on when he needed it.

* * *

After that walk the true aftereffects of the incident would be seen. In the days he was working the fox seemed to shut down mentally, far more so than he had in the past. He would no longer call anyone by their names, only referring to them as 'miss' and 'sir', and aside from when it was absolutely necessary, or when the two of them were alone he stopped talking altogether. His face was no longer as expressionless as it had been following the ranger scouts, instead he wore a perpetually sad look and his tail was almost always drooping down as he went about his duties. He'd also stopped smiling in public, his sad smiles and his forced smiles no longer coming out, regardless of the situation. In a very odd turn of events, he even stopped heading off into town on Sundays, opting instead to spend his time holed up in his room rather than anywhere else, and any time another rabbit interacted with him his tail would go low and his ears would fold back in fear, though the green light on his collar told her that he'd gotten good at hiding it.

At first the other members of her family would move into rooms adjacent to the ones in which the sad-looking fox would occupy as he went about his duties, nobody seeming to want to be near him as if his own feelings were transmittable by proxy. As time went on that changed, and like everything else it slowly became the new normal, with nobody besides her seeming to pay it lasting interest. Judy would spend a good portion of her following days helping the fox whenever she could, either by working silently by his side during the weekdays, or trying to cheer him up on Sundays.

Though she wouldn't know this at the time, in an odd way her insistence on cheering up the fox was part of the reason the rest of her family slowly stopped trying, for they did try. Even the older rabbits in the clan seemed to feel a measure of responsibility for letting everything get so out of hand, and it would be either shame at seeing the fox in such a state or depression at their own perceived failure that made them leave the rooms that he'd entered in those first few days. Once it became clear that this was lasting longer than they thought it would, they did try cheering him up with either compliments or thanks when he worked near them, or actually trying to talk to them when he wasn't engrossed in his tasks, yet any time anyone seemed to interact with him beyond giving him new tasks, regardless of while he was working or after he was finished, he'd duck away and try to leave as if they were some sort of monster.

None of their efforts bore fruit, though as the days continued to pass it didn't take much to observe when the depressed aura around him seemed to vanish, and seeing him perk up slightly when a certain kit walked into the same room made it obvious as to who had managed to help him. Though he'd still look the same and talk the same, the feeling most got from the fox after a while was no different than how it was before his arm was broken, and that was enough to satisfy them. Judy would eventually learn when she happened to eavesdrop some of her aunts and uncles talking about how it felt to be in the same room with him, what they'd done, and how proud they were 'that kit' (as it seemed they still couldn't remember her name) seemed to be making progress with the fox. Her heart would lighten and she'd later admit she did feel quite a bit of pride at that, even ignoring that nobody knew her name.

It would never occur to her that the reason her family had trouble remembering her was because she preferred a canid's company more than theirs. Every other kit had spent a great deal of time with the majority of the adults as they were growing up, they would tell them their likes, dislikes, what they had done earlier that day, what they'd do later, both in that day and their life, and they'd talk for hours about their friends and school. In turn, the adults would share the information with each other and those closest to the kits in question would learn new things about their favourite family members. Judy didn't conform to that norm, and everyone labelled her as the 'trouble kit'. She was that little part of the family that always wanted to be different, that member that nobody would normally think to spend time with, and that kit that nobody knew much about, though everyone assumed she'd either open up to them eventually, or they were one of the few she didn't open up to. Ultimately when they saw her reaching the fox, they would decide to give them space and hope for the best, and it would be with pride that they'd realize she seemed to do what they couldn't.

She had gone into it with her best effort to get him back to how he used to be. Occasionally she'd succeed and his old self would come out when they were alone and in his room, though other times she wasn't as fortunate. Still, she liked to think she was making progress and eventually her efforts yielded fruit on the day his cast was removed.

That had been a great day, at least in her opinion. The doctor had cut off the cast, the fox's eyes lit up in wonder as he moved the arm around, and that night they'd spent the time comparing his formerly broken arm to his good arm, noting how it had gotten smaller in comparison (apparently from lack of use, according to the doctor). That night he'd smiled and actually let out a laugh in joy as he twisted and turned it while also feeling the broken spot with his other hand and it was a joy she found herself caught up in as she also reached over to feel it, and not even his collar shocking them both for getting too excited at his recovery could dampen the mood.

From that point on, in private he'd seem to slip back into his old self, albeit one that seemed slightly more guarded. He'd still make jokes, though they weren't as common. He'd still laugh but it was more restrained, and they would still talk, but it wouldn't be with the same level of excitement from before. That didn't mean it wasn't as fun, as their conversations seemed to hold the same amount of interests, but they were clearly no longer just two little kits talking about whatever minor thing happened and attempting to lighten the day by making fun of it.

Yet despite his far better mood in private, the vulpine's fear of the other rabbits would never fade. Occasionally when he'd done well she'd sometimes catch one of her parents trying to scratch behind his ears, and in turn he'd wince and fold them back as if he'd expected a slap, despite the fact that hadn't happened for years. It was then that she learned even if he was fine around her, it seemed like he never would be if he was around her family, always expecting a blow or further cruelty that never seemed to come. 'They're all just pretending to be nice and I don't know why.' With a sinking heart she wondered how long he'd think that, or if he'd ever think anything different to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a sad thought about seeing an overconfident martial-artist, no matter what style you belong to or what rank they are. I've seen many lower belts become far too overconfident, thinking that just because they're taught how to throw a punch or a kick, that they can take on anyone they please. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that, at that level the only thing that'll come out of real fight against a bigger, stronger opponent is you getting hurt. The problem also goes the other way with people in higher levels who don't know how to control themselves, as we saw with Timothy in this chapter. They might know how to throw a good punch or kick, but they have no idea what kind of damage that leads to because they never think that far ahead.
> 
> To address what the rest of the chapter is about though, that's a whole other can of worms. I'm not going to be shying away from the psychological damage that would be caused to somebody in the fox's shoes. There will be no time warps (or anything similar) to undo what's been done and the actions the Hopps take in this chapter during and after the fox's recovery isn't meant to redeem them. They've already done the damage and now we simply have to look at the aftermath.
> 
> Also after much deliberation, I've decided to split a part of this chapter and a part of the final chapter to make for an additional, intermediate chapter. Keeping it on the end here ruined the flow of the story and did not accurately reflect the gravity of the situation (I'm keeping it the same, I'm just saying there's more punch to the story if I end this chapter here) and both this and the next chapter were already too long in comparison to the rest of the chapters. I'm going to be sticking with a daily upload rate for them however, so I won't leave you hanging for the rest of the story.
> 
> As a final note, everything from here on out is going to be far brighter in terms of tone, as there's many reasons this incident affected the rabbits in the burrow, and not all of them have been revealed yet. You'll just have to wait and see what I mean when we get there.


	5. Growing Bodies, New Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mentioned this in the previous chapter, but just in case people missed it, I decided to split part of chapter 4 and part of chapter 5 to make this chapter, making this a 6 chapter tale all in all. 
> 
> There will be more notes at the end, as there's a fair bit to talk about, but for now let's just get right to the story.

When Judy was celebrating the freedom of her 10th summer, she decided that she and the fox would run away from home. The older she became, the more she understood about the fox and his relationship with her family and the less of it she liked. It was a childish fantasy made by somebody too small to understand the full significance of the task she had planned, and if she was older she would have dismissed it as such and simply taken a stand against it the attitude her family had towards the fox. But at the time she was just a small child with an imagination to match, and soon she was planning and playing out in her head escapes that were far more than she could ever hope to pull off. She was determined however, and the more she realized a plan wouldn't work, the more she'd adjust.

A while after thinking up her plan she found out that planning their escape was still far tougher than she'd initially thought. since she was 10 she was now being made to help with the farm work (which she needed to drop her self-defence classes to attend), which involved being trained for what she'd do when she was bigger while helping out with everything else that she wasn't too small to assist with. Thankfully it didn't seem to cut down much on the time to spend with the fox, as while she could no longer help him with the tasks she was formerly present for, she still had free nights and free Sundays.

It also still gave her time to keep planning the eventual escape. There was one small catch to it though, while she talked to the fox a lot, she never told him about her plan. She knew it would be a long while yet before she understood how his collar worked, and what she needed to do to get them away without being caught. It didn't mean she wasn't asking him questions about it however, it was how she learned that his collar would trigger if he got too far away from her parents' controllers, unless a button was pushed that would give him 18 hours of free movement. Talking to him was also how she learned that the collar had a key that her parents kept hidden.

She understood then that if they were to run away, she'd need to steal at least one of the remotes, and preferably both of them. Finding the key was pretty simple however, it was obviously inside the family safe, the one place only her mother and father had access to, but getting access herself was another matter entirely.

* * *

When winter rolled around, a remarkable change occurred with the fox. This season he seemed noticeably brighter, happier overall whenever she was near, and his enthusiasm returned almost to how it was before, and he'd even gotten back into teasing her about certain things. Of course most of this happened when they were alone, but she wasn't going to look away from what might as well have been an early Christmas gift.

Come Christmas dinner however she'd get into into another fight with the fox, though thankfully they would only grow closer for it.

After all celebrations were finished, after everyone opened the presents the fox had handed out and eaten their suppers, the fox was trying his best to clean up one of the dining rooms from dinner and everyone else had retired to their rooms, and Judy had decided to help him out. The fox clearly appreciated the gesture, as shown by a very wide grin and the fact that his tail seemed to wrap around her legs whenever she got close. Normally she'd be pleased to see him so happy, yet at this moment all she could find in her was annoyance.

"Thanks Clarice, or is it Nessie?" He teased again as he quickly piled a number of dishes together to make them easier to carry.

Judy merely huffed in frustration, her ears twitching as her face frowned. "You're not helping!" She accused as she pulled a garbage can around and dumped any leftover food into it. As Christmas had approached the teasing her fox gave her in private was getting worse. Though he'd been acting little weirder while the holiday was approaching and becoming less restrained, this was taking his previous actions to a new degree.

"You know what you need? A good nickname." The fox sounded pleased as he moved to another table and began to stack the plates there.

"I have one, it doesn't help." She answered, still frustrated that nobody but her friend could remember her name.

"That's because your nickname could still be a name, Jude." He drawled out that last word, before he shot up in wonder and turned to her. "Carrots!" He exclaimed, pointing at her, and Judy looked around in confusion.

"Where?" She asked back, and the fox shook his head.

"No, that'll be your name from now on, you'll be Carrots." He stated, seemingly pleased at the name though Judy didn't feel the same.

"You're not calling me Carrots!" She demanded back.

"Carrots, Carrots, Carrots!" He called out happily as he went back to stacking the dishes.

"If you keep calling me Carrots then I'll tell mom and dad!" She warned, and for a second he froze in horror, a look of terror on his face as his collar flashed yellow. Judy's own ears fell back as she immediately regretting saying it, though when the light went green and a smirk slowly came to his face she began to frown again as he seemed to realize something.

"If you do that, everyone will know your new nickname." He warned back, having figured out her threat was an empty one.

She knew it was true, and that was something she would never let happen. But while her parents didn't have to know, it wasn't as if she couldn't take action herself, so she began to walk over to him while making the rabbit version of a growl in her throat.

The fox's eyes only widened in amusement while a smile split across his face at her display. "Awwww!" He crooned out to the angry kit.

That was it, Judy was off the ground and tackling him towards the ground, though he was struggling not to laugh. He was still clearly emotional enough to make his collar light yellow, and as he rolled to the side and began to tickle her, Judy found the laughter infectious. even when she tried to kick him off she found herself too weak to do much more than lightly push him away, and then they would come back together again in a flurry of hands and feet.

"Don't call me Carrots!" Judy would demand as she would hit him lightly, just barely hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to come anywhere close to what Timothy had done.

"I'll call you what I want!" The fox would laugh out when he'd get a good hold on her, managing to tickle her off of him again, and then the cycle would repeat.

It would take longer than it should have for the two of them to finish cleaning up the room, but nobody was the wiser, the pair finishing at about the time her family expected a single fox to have finished his duties at, and before she left to go to bed the fox would tell her that it was the best Christmas ever.

* * *

As time passed it became clear that the fox wouldn't relent in calling her by her new nickname, but she would no longer begrudge him for it for two reasons. The first was because he only did it when they were alone. The second was because every time he said it, it was as if the sad, broken fox would immediately fall away, and she'd briefly have her old friend back, the one who existed before the ranger scouts and Timothy, and it was such a relief that she no longer cared if he gave her the same name as a plant. The relief also helped in her plan, as she began to wonder if leaving with the fox meant he'd be like this all the time, and that she'd no longer need to worry about seeing how he normally looked with the rest of the warren.

Unfortunately he mostly seemed to return to 'normal' when winter had passed, and Judy wondered if it was just the side effect of the Christmas spirit going around, so she began to look forward to next Christmas, even though this winter had barely finished.

By her 11th birthday she'd finished formulating the start of her plan. She and the fox would run away together, and the place they would go would be obvious, the grand city of Zootopia, where anyone could be anything. She had used it as an example in her play because it was the place she planned to go to be a cop, not least because she wouldn't meet anyone there that she knew. If she was leaving for good then running back into her family would be the last thing she'd want.

* * *

Despite her plans to leave, Judy wasn't neglectful of her home life and shortly before the fox's 12th birthday she came up with an interesting way to give him a present, using a logic formed out of a possible loophole from what she remembered of the training manual.

She put her plan into action when she was assisting her father in the fields on a weekend, having waited until they were mostly alone and nobody else could object to what she was about to say.

"Dad, since the fox's birthday is coming up, can I give him some of my older presents?" She asked innocently while they worked. Right now it was just weeding, certainly nothing they needed to concentrate hard on.

"No Jude, you know why we can't." He answered, getting her name right, though that might have been because she corrected him earlier that day.

"I don't mean for him to keep, I mean for him to borrow." She continued and her father paused in his work, before straightening up and frowning of into the distance. "I'll make sure he knows they're mine and I'll make sure to get them back."

"What kind of presents are we talking about Jude?" He asked quizzically, still seeming unsure on the idea.

"Puzzles! 3D puzzles, 2D puzzles, some books, that sort of thing." She made sure to put on her best 'begging' look.

Though her father refused to make direct eye contact, she could slowly see his frown morph into a smile. "All right Jude, so long as you make sure he knows they're yours and that you're going to get everything back eventually."

"Thanks dad!" She shouted out as she gave him a quick hug, and then they were back to weeding, the little kit humming a pleasant tune to herself.

* * *

It was only a short time later that the fox celebrated his 12th birthday, though it seemed to take forever to find him. He was out of his room before she woke up, and for all her efforts she couldn't find him in the burrow either. Asking her mother only told her that the fox had the day off, which meant he could be anywhere. So Judy would wait until later in the day to meet up with him in his room, a wide smile on her face and an armful of boxes, calling out to him at his door and stepping aside when he opened it for her.

The fox seemed surprised to see all of the boxes, but it faded pretty clearly as he shut the door and gave her a confused frown. "Carrots, I don't think we can do all of those in just one night." He stated as he looked at the many puzzles.

She wasn't sure if he was being genuine or just teasing her some, or maybe a bit of both so she decided to pretend as if he'd said nothing. "Happy birthday fox!" She announced as she motioned for him to take them.

His eyes went wide again as he stared at all of the gifts. "Carrots you know I can't get presents!" He whispered out with enough surprise his collar light briefly blinked yellow, before reaching out and pushing them back towards her.

"Yes you can, these aren't really your presents, they're my presents, and I'll let you borrow them until you want to give them back." She rationalized and he frowned a little. "You just don't have to give them back if you don't want to." She quickly added and his frown deepened.

"Carrots, I don't think your parents would understand that." He responded, though it was with clear regret in his voice.

"Sure they would, I already talked to them about it!" She insisted. Well she'd talked to her father about it, but she'd decided that was good enough. Surely he'd already told her mother about it by now.

For a second he looked down at the puzzles, then up at her, then down again before his collar light flashed yellow and he looked at her again with hope in his eyes. With a shaking hand he reached up and touched the topmost box, before opening his mouth to speak: "You really mean it?" He almost whispered and she happily nodded.

"Wow, I don't..." He began as he looked down at the boxes. Judy moved a little away from him and turned around to set the boxes in a corner, her arms tiring from the effort. She rounded on him however when a sudden yelp came out that attracted her attention once more. Spinning around she saw him holding a hand up to his collar, the light yellow but a happy smile on his face as he looked down at her. "Thanks Carrots." He finished as she could see tears start to build up in his eyes.

The two would hug, and then Judy would show the fox how the more complex puzzles worked, most of them being ones he'd never seen before and the look of happiness on his face that night would make for a pleasant memory in the years to come.

* * *

When she had her own 12th birthday Judy was given a much larger room, a 'big rabbit' room as her family called it, and soon she learned one of the very important laws of the burrow: There was no such thing as privacy for the 'big rabbits' in a rabbit warren. Anyone could walk into any room except the rooms meant specifically for little kits, and even the rooms with locks her parents still had keys to. There was no room in the burrow that the heads of the households could not get into and most times if anyone came across a door that was barred to them, most would take it as a challenge to get that door opened. The only exception to this was the fox's room, and it was one of a very small list of things that she could thank the training manual for.

As a kit she hadn't had much reason to stay in her room, so this wasn't something she thought about that much before. Being granted a new room that was much bigger and being visited by whatever family members were curious however wasn't a very welcome experience, especially since she'd recently used some of her allowance to purchase ZPD posters and it seemed that everyone who came in wanted to know why she was hanging those up. It also didn't help that they seemed to find 'Because I want to join the ZPD!' Funny.

This was a lesson that Judy was eventually pleased to have learned. While she was initially angered by the lack of privacy in her brand new room, a realization soon hit her: Nobody thought twice about a rabbit watching another. Because of this she took to following her parents around, she would pester her mother, father, and siblings about any new arrivals into the family, and when a new litter was born in the summer, she was finally able to put what she'd learned to the test.

A few days into one of her older sister's (thankfully planned) pregnancy, Judy had moved a box usually containing potatoes into the storage room that housed the safe. It wasn't unusual to see such boxes there, it was less likely anyone would check inside such a box for a kit when they opened the safe. She had done it to acclimatize her family to its presence, and was proud at having thought of it, originally getting the idea off of a police show she'd seen where the police intentionally moved a car into position weeks ahead of time so that when the bad guys of the episode made a move, they'd never think anyone would be in a broken-down looking car.

Still, the pregnancy took longer than usual and she was right at the start of her growth spurt. As she grew older, she continued to grow smarter, grow stronger, but she also started to grow bigger. That last bit was happening slower than her siblings and she was glad. Had she grown larger any faster, she never would have been able to hide inside the box when the kits were born, and as such she was fully hidden when her father entered the room to place the birth certificates inside the safe.

It was how she learned the combination for the safe, her cautious father double checking the corners and the door he locked before opening it, but her vantage point gave her a clear view of the numbers he entered, and though there were a lot of papers that she could see inside the safe, they seemed to be sorted into different piles. When her father closed the safe, unlocked the door and left she could only pray that the fox's papers were in an easy-to-find pile.

Finding a way to steal the remotes wasn't that much harder. Like the rest of the older rooms, there was no privacy in the burrow, not even for the heads of the household. Their door was only kept closed by the unspoken rule of not waking them unless it was an emergency, and she might have left the night she learned the combination had she not been given a talking-to by one of her aunts just a few days before.

* * *

"Vicky, I heard you wanted to be a police officer?" Her aunt had asked when she passed by her one time in the hallway.

"My name's Judy." She answered as she turned around. "And yes, I'm going to be Zootopia's first rabbit cop!" She stated with confidence.

She remembered how her aunt got down on one knee, a sardonic look in her eye. "Now Jude, the police academy only accepts the best of the best, the smartest, fastest and strongest of all mammals, but how are you going to prove that?" Judy's face frowned in confusion as her aunt asked her the question.

"I'll demonstrate it for them!" She'd answered after thinking it over.

"It might be too late by the time you're old enough." The older doe lectured, and Judy felt a pit of worry form in her stomach. "You need to demonstrate to them before you apply why you're the best, and you know how you can do that?" She shook her head, and her aunt's face lit up in a smile. "By excelling in your classes of course! If you get the best grades in the class and the field, if you can do good enough to skip a grade then they'll see that you're the perfect candidate!"

That sounded very smart to Judy so she immediately grinned and nodded. "Thanks aunt Margaret, I'll do my best!" She agreed before starting off on her way again, determined not to let her aunt down.

A few days after learning combination she'd hear her mother talking to her aunt, surprisingly enough her mother seemed to be criticizing her sister and Judy hid by a doorway to listen in.

"I don't want him to fall back to how he used to be, why would you try to get her to stay away?" Her mother firmly insisted, though Judy couldn't figure out what they were talking about.

"Oh please, he's nowhere near as bad as he used to be and besides, she needs to focus her time on something other than that fox." Her aunt argued back, and Judy clued in to what was going on.

"She has other focuses, she helps out in the fields and she still has her schoolwork, all this is going to do is make her disappointed when she can't become a police officer!" Her mothers' voice was becoming more heated as she spoke, and if this was about anyone else she would leave right about now. It was uncommon for the adults to argue about the kits, however it did still happen on occasion, and it wasn't usually a pleasant thing to listen to. Most times however it wasn't about her.

"That kit spends more time helping the fox with his chores than she does in the fields!" Her aunt sounded as if she was getting more worked up about this too.

"And that's her choice, if she wants to help him then we should leave them alone!" Her mother's voice was beginning to grow to a shout.

"Then I suppose her choosing to study instead of spending time with the fox is also her choice isn't it?" Came the smug retort from her aunt, and immediately Judy's heart fell as she realized what her aunt had actually intended.

She left right then to find her friend. Her aunt had been right, she had been choosing to work as hard on her schoolwork to impress her teachers, and she'd been working as hard as possible in the fields to impress her family. It was a shame she hadn't arrived just a few minutes earlier, or stayed a few minutes longer, otherwise she would have learned some details about why her mother seemed so concerned that would have changed the fox's fate right then and there, but such thoughts didn't occur to her at the time. Later when she wondered what she might have missed by leaving so early, she would mistakenly label it as unimportant, for in her mind finding the fox took precedence.

She would help him for the rest of the day as apology, and she'd show up that night to ask for his help on not just her schoolwork, but also for him to start teaching her what he'd learned that she hadn't yet. They'd spend the rest of the night studying like how they were when she used to be half her current age. She would be snuggling up to and under his tail while he'd patiently be smiling whenever she got frustrated at something she'd never heard of before and had yet to fully understand.

* * *

When Judy was 13 and the new school year was about to start, she did what her aunt had suggested and managed to skip a grade. Despite the reasons behind her aunt's advice, she thought there were still a few advantages. Skipping a grade and still doing well should make her a more desirable candidate, right? Not to mention it gave her a much better excuse to study with the fox, even when they were out in the open.

Being in the same grade, and taking advantage of the leeway everyone was giving the fox now, Judy had no issues in choosing to openly study the fox in some of the study rooms in the warren, though she initially had issues in convincing the fox to do so.

As he spent most of his spare time in his room, hiding away from other rabbits who he still had a very real and clear fear for, the suggestion that they spent time elsewhere didn't go over too well initially, with his collar light flashing yellow at the idea, before she tried bribing him with more presents, such as an somethings she didn't have much use for, a small T.V., DVD player and a few movies she'd been given over the years.

It was quite easy to give those up, 'big rabbit' rooms had the benefit of coming fully stocked with many things that the kit rooms lacked, including her current gifts, minus the movies. The main reason she didn't really care for them however was because of the simplest of reasons, the burrow already had more than enough of them.

Rabbits are social creatures, and while it was nice to watch movies, it was far better to watch them in a group. Considering that there were enough public rooms in the burrow that already contained enough T.V.'s that she could already use and fully stocked shelves that already housed the movies she was in meant she was hardly giving up anything by handing away her gifts. This way she had the benefit of not watching the movies on her own, which in the fox's case was more of a detriment.

For the most part, she knew the fox usually didn't watch movies. He technically could once his tasks for the day were complete and sometimes he'd see parts of movies if he was working in one of the T.V. rooms, sometimes long enough to see a full movie. So long as he finished his tasks early enough (ever since she'd started helping him that stopped being an issue) there was no rule that stopped him from attempting to watch movies in those rooms, however he never did and it wasn't hard to see why, considering that none of those rooms could be used for or by just one mammal.

Naturally there was no T.V. in his room, at least not before she gave him her small one, and a few days after giving it to him she found out that having it there meant there were more benefits than for just him. If they finished his tasks and were left with no schoolwork, or on a Sunday, she could sneak out any movie she wanted to, even ones she wasn't supposed to see quite yet, and watch them in the fox's room with some headsets plugged into the DVD player. With a splitter she could get a second headset and even watch them alongside the fox and without any fear of being interrupted.

It would lead to many great nights of movie watching where the two of them would cower together in front of a horror movie, the fox insisting on finishing them even if they shocked him (metaphorically and physically). They would spend some spellbound by certain action/cop movies, and sometimes they would be discussing openly how much they hated a particularly bad movie if the one she'd sneaked in.

Though how she spent time with the fox changed, aside from their movie nights she didn't really spend that much more time with him than before aunt Margaret's suggestion. They never had classes together still, as she kept still going to outside schools while the fox was being taught in the classes at home, but the rate at which they'd learned was mostly the same (the fox learning everything a little sooner than she did) and once he seemed to grow used to studying outside of his room (even if he seemed to remain anxious when the other rabbits looked at him) he still made for a good study partner.

Of course now that she was openly studying with the fox, her family took notice. Once it became clear that he was helping her in her studies though many left them alone, and soon after she heard one of her uncles joking to her aunt about her plan backfiring, saying it was cute that her aunt wanted to keep the two together, much to the ire of the older doe.

As the days began to pass in this manner, thoughts of fleeing the burrow began to drift farther and farther away in her mind, until she rarely thought o it at all. Though she preferred the fox's company at home, she still had a few friends at school, and the older she grew the more unrealistic running away seemed to her. Parts of her new classes included various social studies, including those that were to prepare their students for the real world.

These new classes involved studying livable wages, identifying profitable careers, exploring possible alternative employments for those who didn't wish to be farmers, as well as the issues most commonly found in trying to get a new job, buying a new home and running a household. With each new lesson the greater the risks became with simply running away, and eventually the desire faded from her altogether.

She still had a desire to help the fox, at the very least he deserved to be free, but that would be impossible so long as he was still considered property of her family. Getting a hold of his papers would not assist in that matter, she knew by now that while physical copies were very important, her family backed up everything, both at home and over at city hall using the computers that were used to keep track of the various interwoven families of the county.

So her focus changed, no longer would she attempt to flee with the fox, instead she'd attempt to find a way to free him in any way she could, and once that was done she'd do what she could to help him life a fulfilling life away from the burrow.

* * *

In the coming Christmas, Judy had a very odd thought as she watched the fox hand out presents. There were entire groups of kits that he was giving presents to who were not scared of the fox at all, and while most of them belonged to the 5-7 age range, there were a few 8-year olds who were there too. These were the kits who were practically bouncing up and down while the fox handed out every gift as quick as he could, no doubt so he could retreat into his room, though Judy wondered about the why for these little ones.

It would occur to her during the family dinner following the Christmas gifts as to why they might not be afraid of the fox, and once she realized it the answer seemed so obvious: These were the kits who had never known a fox-free burrow. To them the sight of the vulpine was commonplace, he was a helper around the house, and had given them their various gifts for every year of their life.

Before this point she'd never put into perspective how long the fox had stayed with them, at least not like that and it was jarring to realize that these kits were older than she had been when they'd first gotten the fox, and had no idea what it was to live like without him.

That night she didn't exactly know what to think about the thought, so she attempted to put it out of her mind, at least for the night. Winter meant that the fox was back to being his happier, more teasing and recently, more snugly self when they watched movies at night and she wanted to to enjoy that to its fullest extent.

* * *

When Judy was 14 she was experiencing the full effects of puberty, and so was the fox, though they seemed to experience it in different ways. He seemed to grow bigger, and gain more unusual behaviours, such as the strange rumbled purring in his chest she'd only heard when he was drugged and had his arm put in a cast, though he only did it when they were leaning against each other while watching a movie. His tail also seemed to grow an entire mind of its own, wrapping around her legs when she got close, and at first it nearly tripped her. That had caused an odd yelp from the fox as they both wondered what had happened, with the fox denying any intention of having done so or any knowledge of moving his tail in such a way.

Her effects on the other hand felt a lot more profound. The first and foremost was increased size as she continued to grow, but a close second was her interest in boys. While she had little issues in tolerating them before, she'd find it far more pleasant to think about bucks now, especially thinking about them with less, or even no clothes on, much to her embarrassment the first time the thought popped into her mind. Fortunately rabbits always had sex-ed in grade 8, so she was well aware of why she was having these thoughts and as summer neared a smile would come to her face as she remembered how she was initially disgusted during that class.

In the few times in which she had no homework and chose to read, regardless of whether or not she was with or waiting for the fox, her reading material began to include more romance and drama novels than it had before. She'd still talk about the books to her friend, and though the fox would occasionally laugh at her choices in literature, he would rarely speak badly about her choice in literature, though maybe that had to do with the glares she'd shoot him while he was laughing.

* * *

In the summer of that year, she would end up getting a boyfriend. A rabbit named Billy who she'd spend her breaks with, caught in the early throes of kitten love. She'd attempt to keep what she was feeling to herself though, as she'd heard more than enough stories about her siblings that such things didn't always last and some of her siblings who did find out would tease her about it.

By the end of that summer she'd have lost that boyfriend after confiding in him her dream job. He'd refused to support her wish to become a cop, and a fight would ensue, Billy arguing that she shouldn't try for a 'useless and stupid' job that he claimed would only get her hurt or killed, and Judy arguing back that he didn't care for what she wanted out of any future career. For two days after the argument she would feel bad about it and apologize and so would he, but despite the hug they would share they both would move on from each other.

Judy would end up being fine with it though, by the Christmas of that year she'd learn something that would have her forget all about Billy.

It happened after the presents had all been dealt with, and once more the fox was recuperating from his daily activities that day. Running presents, cleaning up after everyone else and helping to set up as well as clean up the dinner still took a fair bit out of him, especially as the family continued to increase in size. He was once again holed up in his room where he wouldn't be disturbed, unless it was by the only rabbit in the burrow he was excited to see.

Judy on the other hand had taken part of the day to go through a new book she'd been given, and she was certain it was a joke she'd gotten from her siblings. It was a tragic romance book, specifically a romance between two foxes, a vixen and a tod from warring families, and it was also one that heavily plagiarized the play 'Romeo and Juliet', with the main exception being it didn't end so tragically. "To our sister who loves foxes." The card on the packaging had read, which was what made her think that it was a joke more than anything else, but she still skimmed through it reading part of the beginning, skipping to a bit in the middle, and then going straight to the end, even if it was just to avoid appearing rude.

Doing this however did have the benefits of teaching her some things that she'd never known before, such as major differences between fox and rabbit behaviours she'd remained unaware of. If the book was telling the truth when it mentioned details in a fox courtship, then that meant...

Judy could feel her ears heat up as she realized that what she'd taken for granted, or taken for innocent little things between friends, weren't so innocent anymore. She'd had no idea that grabbing a fox's tail was considered as intimate as the book stated it was, just as she had no idea there were other reasons the fox would make the rumble in his chest or wrap his tail around her legs besides being happy he was near a friend.

If the book was right, he was certainly happy, though not at all in the way she'd thought. With great embarrassment she glanced around, and saw a number of her sisters looking at her and snickering, causing her to hide her own ears in shame, as the increased redness on their inside was no doubt a dead giveaway.

She'd continue thinking about it and what it meant as she lay in bed once everything from Christmas was over and done with. If he was interested in her, then why in that way? If she thought about bucks, then shouldn't he be thinking about vixens? That thought was crossed out with a frown as she realized there weren't any vixens anywhere near them, but still, why was he interested in somebody outside his own species, after all she wasn't interested in him, right?

She'd later tell herself it was just to get a better grasp on what she was trying to deal with, but that night she would turn on the light in her room and go back through the book, looking for any scenes that were a little more 'explicit' and to her shock, she found them. She didn't need to read them for long though, just enough to get an idea, then purely as an exercise to prove to herself she wasn't interested, she tried imagining the fox without any of his clothes and with the same details the book had mentioned for male foxes.

To her surprise her ears went scarlet almost immediately and she banished the thought almost as soon as it arrived, choosing instead to think about anything else. Her little 'exercise' had ended in abject failure, and now she was left with a new issue that she had no idea of how to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A number of further developments here, as more years are covered and both the fox and Judy enter puberty. Judy also comes up with a plan that while it would make for a nice fantasy, is ultimately not desirable. It is still technically an option, but it's one that would lead to a vast complications for the duo, especially if they left while still being minors.
> 
> I am curious how many people thought the two of them would run away together at the end of this story when they read that bit (I'm going to tell you now, it's not what happens) just as I'm curious what your reactions are at the thought that there would be kits in this burrow by now who've only ever grown up with the fox. They were born after he was bought, and to them he'd just be an ever-present constant in the household.
> 
> There's a question on whether or not they'd share the same prejudices as their older siblings. Seeing as how the clan's easing up on the fox after the start of the last chapter, and seeing as how we've only noticed kits in the same age group sticking together, I think they'd be rather fine with this particular fox after several years of nobody taking any action against him. I wouldn't want anyone making any assumptions as to why they're easing up on him however, as there's one more chapter to go and when the reason is actually revealed I think you'd find it surprising. It was a bit of a cheat to announce that she missed something important in the conversation between her aunt and her mother, but I feel that with it the last chapter will have a better setup when we get to the final plot points.
> 
> There also wasn't too much interaction between the main characters here and the rest of the family, but that'll also change in the next chapter. Like I said before the stuff in the earlier chapters is enough to cause severe issues, and I'm not going to sweep those under the rug. Instead, I'd like what little interactions exist in this chapter to represent the best of what could have been the fox's stay here, had everything that was mentioned in the previous Author's Notes worked out. It's not good, not even okay, but it's a whole lot better than what he ended up getting.
> 
> In any case, there's only one more chapter to go from this point, and only three more years to cover out of the original twelve that we started with. All I can say is thanks for sticking with the story so far, and I hope you enjoy the ending in the upcoming finale.


	6. Goodbye, Nicholas Wilde

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is folks, the final chapter titled 'Goodbye, Nicholas Wilde'. This is the culmination of everything before it and I hope you're satisfied with how it ends.
> 
> To be honest originally it wasn't this big, but right before posting it I decided to expand on a few things (which led to me wanting to expand more things), and I felt too guilty to split it up further after changing how many chapters were in this story before, so I simply decided to leave it as is.

In the days following that Christmas, Judy did not run or hide from the fox, instead she simply observed him a little more closely to make sure she wasn't seeing something that wasn't there. It didn't mean she was fully comfortable with what was happening and at first she couldn't help but unintentionally flinch a little when his tail would try wrapping around her legs or if they were watching a movie and he moved closer. Fortunately that faded fast and was quickly replaced by more curiosity. If he was clearly open to this sort of thing then why did he stop here?

In the first week of January she'd finally go to the library to get a comprehensive book on fox behaviours, having chosen a book instead of an online search at her home for fear of anyone else catching her unexpectedly and seeing what she was doing. All the computers were in public rooms and at least with a book she could say she was looking up something innocuous, and she could also set her back to a wall and prevent anyone from seeing exactly what she was reading at a distance. If worst came to worst she just had to flip to a different page and bore them with some useless tidbit they no doubt wouldn't care for.

Her caution was rewarded the same day she brought home the book, as no fewer than three siblings asked her about it when they saw her carrying it around, but she wasn't bothered further after that, thankfully those three siblings seemed to spread the message that their 'fox sister' was just looking up more 'fox stuff' and nobody else wanted to be taught the reasons why foxes hunted rodents while facing north back when they were all primitives, or how they had sometimes raised litters inside trees.

Once she was certain she wouldn't be further queried on the book, she began looking up what she was actually interested in, specifically full details on courtship rituals. She only became hesitant when she found the exact details she was looking for.

There was definitely a reason the fox hadn't done anything further towards her, and apparently it was because he was waiting for her permission. According to this book (listed with citations) the male fox usually took a more passive role, indicating their interest, and then it was up to the female to reciprocate.

Judy felt nervous as she kept reading. She'd figured that if the fox continued to press on with his advances, especially if they were anything like the two foxes in her novel, she could adjust as he went along. At the very least she'd have gotten confirmation that he was interested in her and she... wasn't sure what was going on with herself.

When her flinches gave way to curiosity, she'd began wondering about more than his restraint. The more she'd waited for him to make a move, the more she began to wonder about what it would be like when he did, and how she'd want to react. The more she thought the more she had trouble deciding, as she could convince herself she wasn't interested while she was at school or in her room, but then when she'd either help him in his tasks or watch a movie with him, both while being sure he was interested in her this all fell apart. Her muscles would tense up slightly, her heart would beat faster and her ears would fall down to hide the scarlet blush that spread across their insides.

Thankfully her book also explained away why the fox was so different in the winter, though it being 'mating season' didn't help the situation much either, in fact it seemed to make it worse. Having such a blunt name made everything seem too intimate given what the name meant, and especially since it confirmed what was going on.

Unfortunately it also made her realize something else, she'd have to make a decision on what she wanted before this 'season' of his ended, or else she'd need to wait for the next winter for him to start being this open with her again and according to the book, if she made advances out of season it could have unfortunate consequences and lead to rejection, even if he was interested (though it did mention those were rare). At least it explained what to do if she wanted to accept his advances or what to do if she wanted to reject them, but ultimately it couldn't help in figuring out what she wanted to do.

This all eventually came to a head when they were having one of their late movie nights again, both of them lying down on their stomachs atop his bed this time while watching a romantic comedy that was just average. She didn't really know what drove her to pick it out at the time, it had just seemed nice, and while it played the two had hardly shared a word. This ended when the predictable third act breakup happened, and she decided she didn't need to see the rest of the movie to figure out how it was going to end, so she spoke up to him:

"Fox?" She asked and he looked over at her with a smile. "I was wondering something recently, how do fox behaviours differ from rabbits?" She figured she'd start off small, ease him into the subject so he wouldn't be too uncomfortable.

The fox cocked his head and gave her an odd look. "How do you mean?"

"Well recently I was looking up some differences, and apparently foxes handle winter a little differently than rabbits?" The question was loaded and she thought she was guiding him on the right path, but his response made her think otherwise.

"I'm not sure, we handle snow the same and we celebrate the same holidays." He answered back with a shrug, before glancing back towards the movie though it clearly did not hold his interest.

"I just heard that foxes had certain seasons." Judy pressed on, becoming a little more blunt with her questions, though the fox didn't respond. "Would you know anything about those?"

He had to respond at that, and so he did: "We do have some seasons." He admitted, though he didn't continue any further.

"What kinds?" The more she tried to push forward, the more she had a feeling this wasn't going to go how she'd hoped.

"Well, we have a season where we grow a bigger coat." That was true, though it didn't make him much bigger. "Then when it's over we lose the coat." He continued, and then stopped. She waited a second more, but he didn't press on after that point.

"I heard that there was another season." She began, only for the fox to shrug and her to frown. Apparently she needed to be direct after all. "I'd heard it was the season fox's tods were supposed to find their vixens."

He had a small smile at that, though it almost looked like a sad one. "It is." He stated, though once again he refused to go further.

"I also looked up the behaviours foxes show when they're searching for vixens." She stopped for a second and was about to continue, when she felt his tail suddenly leave her legs. Looking back revealed it was flopped to the side away from her, and she judged that he knew exactly what she was getting at. "You're not interested in a vixen though are you fox?"

"No." It came out as a sad whisper, and she looked back at his head to see tears falling down his face. It was a moment that cut into her heart as she wondered what would happen if she rejected him.

"I get why you didn't tell me." She began as she reached out to touch him, only to see him flinch at the contact, though he didn't move away. "I wasn't sure how to feel about it when I found out about it." It felt good to get that admission out there, though the fox didn't seem to relax.

"I don't want a relationship." He muttered suddenly, and just for a second it sounded as if her heart stopped.

"You don't?" She asked as her stomach seemed to twist around and a strange crushing sensation felt like it came from her chest. He nodded as more tears began to fall from his face, though his collar hadn't activated yet.

Not willing to end it right there, she felt a bit of fury begin to well up from within. "Then why did you do anything if you don't want a relationship?" She demanded.

"Because... because I did." He answered back after a second of silence, and her fury quickly found itself replaced by confusion.

After another few seconds of silence she decided to press the matter, since it seemed the fox wouldn't. "What changed?"

"Nothing, I just... even if we do anything, you're just going to leave again right?" He asked as his head slowly turned so one of his eyes could look at her and her heart felt like it stopped again. "You're going to leave to be a cop, or you'll leave for the city, but you'll leave."

There was no denying that she still wanted to be a cop, and there was also no denying that she'd have to leave town to go to the academy and then Zootopia afterwards to pursue her dream, but what did he mean by 'again'? When had she chosen to abandon him?

With widening eyes she realized what he'd meant. He meant times such as after Gideon Grey, times when he'd been preyed upon by her family members and she'd left him to face them by himself, until one of the worst case scenarios happened and his arm was broken.

"What if you could come with me?" She asked as she sat up on the bed, the fox joining her in surprise as his fur seemed to puff out. Now she could see his collar was definitely yellow, which wasn't much of a surprise given the look on his face.

"I can't be a cop Carrots, I just... I can't." He shook his head sadly at the thought, though that wasn't quite what Judy had meant.

"I mean what if you could come with me into the city? What if I could find a way to set you free?" She'd expected a look of wonder at the thought, but instead the only emotion he gave her was horror.

"Free?" He asked in a shaky voice, and Judy gave a confused frown at the reaction. It was almost as if he didn't want to go free. Briefly his eyes looked away from hers, and her own trailed down to the collar around his neck.

Suddenly a thought came into her head as he eyes looked back up: "What if I could make up for the times I left you alone?" She asked with a careful voice, and his look of horror changed to one of confusion. She spoke up again before he could say anything: "Stay right here, I'll be right back!" She announced as she bounded off the bed and left the room.

There was utter stillness and quiet in the burrow as she went down the hallways, though she remained careful in doing so. At any point she could bump into a relative moving around for their own reasons and her plan would be immediately ruined. Of course creeping took more time than she wanted, and right at the point she was worried he'd think she abandoned him again her target came in sight: her parent's bedroom.

Bunny hearing is very good, even when they're asleep, so with that in mind Judy carefully opened, the door, taking full advantage of the fact that there was no privacy in the burrow and that their door was only locked with an unwritten rule, and crept on over to her father's nightstand. Resting there was what she needed right now, a collar remote and as she picked it up she quickly spotted the 'release' button.

She crept out of her parent's room and back into the fox's room with the same care that she had before, and entering the vulpine's presence showed her he did indeed have a very scared look, one that turned to terror when he saw the remote in her hands. "Shh, keep calm!" She whispered out to him as she worried about his collar getting set off on its own, and then quickly pushed the release button on the device, hoping it did exactly what she thought it would.

A metallic click sounded in the room, and the yellow light on the front of the collar went out for the first time in her entire life, though the fox froze like a statue, the look of terror still on his face. Judy frowned, what did he think would happen-

She cut off that thought with a horrified look of her own and immediately moved closer to the vulpine. The remote was only supposed to do one thing, no wonder he was so scared. With a hope that this would break him out of his current state, she reached up, grabbed the collar and pulled, the device opening slight at the back as it came off his neck and into her hands, though despite the action the fox still didn't move or look any different.

Forcing on a smile, she held up the collar next to her head and back up slightly. "Look at that fox, I took your collar off!" She announced as proudly as he could, though still he did not move. "Fox?" She asked with growing worry, dropping both remote and collar on the ground as she stepped closer.

Finally the fox had a reaction, giving a little huff, then another, and then a blink. Slowly his hand raised up to his neck, and it flinched away the second it touched the matted-down fur instead of a metal ring, and then he began huffing again. This behaviour was entirely new to Judy, while she'd looked up the mating season and some other facts, she hadn't read the whole thing back-to-back, and now she was regretting that choice.

"Fox?" She asked with further worry as she stepped closer still, only for his huffs to speed up, and then he looked down at her. Slowly a smile broke through his features as tears once more came down his face, though this time they were tears of joy.

Suddenly he swooped down, arms outstretched and she let herself fall into the grip of his hug. She hugged him back as he began nuzzling the side of her face, letting out happy whines as if he were still a little kit and she couldn't help but have her own tears of joy come out at his reaction. "I'm sorry fox." She mumbled as he continued nuzzling the side of her face, and she was satisfied with the happy whine she got in return.

Briefly her eyes flashed back over to the T.V., where the two main characters were clearly about to get back together with some 'I love you's' and then live happily ever after, and Judy envied their simplicity.

* * *

Sometime during the hug, the fox began to stand up, though he was still holding onto her. It was something he'd never done before and Judy found it oddly fascinating, right up until he sat down on the bed and lay down, upon which she realized he'd moved them probably because he was uncomfortable. Still, they remained in contact to each other and it was... nice. She hadn't exactly known what would happen when they finally went through everything, but if she'd imagined this would happen in her head, then the fictional feeling she'd get would pale in comparison to the real thing. It was nice enough to make her forget that there was once a movie playing, or that she needed to return the remote... or that she'd need to get back to her room at some point... or...

With a start Judy jolted her head up, having very nearly fallen asleep next to the fox, and she could see the vulpine react with a jolt of his own, followed closely by a yawn as his head pulled away. Apparently he'd been in the same boat. "Fox? How're you feeling?" She asked a little groggily, and he gave out one of the happiest smiles she'd seen in a very long time.

"I'm feeling good, really good." He whispered back as his grip on her tightened, though it just pulled them back together. Apparently his grip had gone a little slack when they were both falling asleep.

For a little bit Judy thought about what she'd say to him next, and then came up with what just felt right as she sat up. "Fox, I'm going to make sure you're set free." She began, noting the saddened look in his eyes at the thought of having to put the collar on again. It needed to be done however, until she could make sure that he was no longer her parent's property, any freedom he had could be fleeting, and at any point he could be found and sent back to them. To avoid that they'd have to get fake documentation for him in every area, and that came with its own issues, especially when she wanted to be a cop. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to take your collar off again in the future," She promised and his eyes lit up at that. "And- and while I do have to go to the academy and possibly other places sometimes, I can promise I'll always come back for you, no matter what, okay?" She stuttered a little at the start, worried about his reaction, though when he smile came to his face again she could feel herself relax.

"Thank you Judy." He spoke with complete and utter honesty, before sitting up himself, and attempting to kiss her. It didn't quite work out as well as either of them had thought, his muzzle was too long and pointed compared to her mouth, but she couldn't bring herself to care too much about the small details.

Later that night she'd reattach the collar to the fox, the vulpine's face falling a little as it snapped around his neck, and then she'd return the remote to the nightstand she took it from. After that it was a simple matter of heading back to her room, her thoughts awhirl in her head now that she was alone.

That hadn't gone anything like what she'd predicted, yet she was happy. He seemed happy, and when she entered her room she was content to fall asleep for the first time in a month without thoughts of what she could or should do plaguing her mind.

* * *

Judy kept her promise about removing the fox's collar at a later date, though she kept the occasions rare. It wasn't because she didn't want to see him without the device, quite the contrary. Instead her reasons had everything to do with the fear of her parents finding the remotes missing, either because they woke up and found them missing, or because somebody else entered their room late at night needing their help. Though rare it did still happen, and it wasn't something she wanted to bet on.

The next time she removed his collar was the night of her 15th birthday, and though they'd also put on a movie that night, neither of them would be interested in watching it. She'd be too busy running her hands around his shirt, around his neck, under his chin and over her ears, scratching as she went and giggling slightly when she found a sensitive enough spot that made his feet kick out a little.

For his part he'd be busy doing more or less the same thing, though his claws were always kept retracted and he seemed to have more of an interest in nibbling than scratching. It created an odd thrill within her, especially when he moved onto sensitive parts like her ears.

It would be thanks to Bunnyburrow's early sex-ed courses that the encounter wouldn't progress further. While Judy did not know if a fox could get a rabbit pregnant (she did attempt to check at one point using as innocuous a search as possible on one of her family's computers, only to find there were no results) she still had no interest in risking it. Several of her siblings already had unplanned pregnancies and if she were to join them, it could stall her plans for the academy for a very long time.

So they fooled around on the bed, just two kits who were clueless with what to do with each other and even though she knew they needed to stop, at the end of the night she found it very difficult to pull away.

They'd get to enjoy the same thing on his 16th birthday though, that being the third time she'd steal the remote. Once again they'd explored each other, but just before she left that night he dragged the side of his cheek along her neck, and a powerful musk entered in through her nostrils. It smelled like the fox, yet it was far stronger, and as he moved his head away the smell seemed to stay with her.

A giddy feeling bubbling up in her chest, she realized what it was. Since getting into a relationship with the fox she'd fully read the book on fox behaviours before returning it to the library, so when he looked at her expectantly she had no issues in leaning in and brushing her chin along his neck. While rabbits and foxes left scent marks in different ways, they both left them for the same reason, to declare that they'd taken the other as a partner, and future mate.

It hadn't occurred to her until after she'd put his collar back on and put the remote away, but there was a chance that her other family members would realize what they'd done. It was enough to keep her awake through most of the night, though in the morning when she woke up the most that would happen would be her sisters wrinkling their noses at her, and one of them would make a lewd joke about her 'keeping the fox company' on his birthday. Her ears would fall and she'd scurry away in embarrassment, thankfully it seemed her family took the new scent as just another odd thing between them. They'd carried each others scents for a short while and she could only be glad that nobody besides her knew what a fox scent mark smelled like, or didn't realize there was a rabbit mark underneath the fox's musk.

Despite their ignorance though it seemed as if the fox thought at any moment they'd be found out, as the day after they marked one another, throughout all of his tasks his collar light was yellow and sometimes his arms went a little shaky when one of the rabbits began sniffing the air as if they'd noticed something a little odder than usual. Perhaps they would have been found out had the fox not somehow managed to keep his expression the same sadder one the family had gotten used to.

* * *

In the summer of her 15th year, she managed to convince the fox to join her in town, and the two went for their first walk away from the warren in a very long time. They'd stopped walking to town together since before they were teenagers, but Judy didn't spend too much time thinking on the past, instead choosing to enjoy the current moment as she debated on whether or not she could risk holding hands with the smiling vulpine.

She could play it off if somebody drove by, but ultimately she decided against it for fear of raising unnecessary suspicion. The fox didn't complain and didn't try to take anything any further, so she decided that he must've been happy with the arrangement too.

Still, there was a long way between the warren and the town, so she tried to start a little conversation: "Fox, when you used to go into town, where did you go?" She asked as she looked up at his head.

He gave her a quizzical look before shrugging. "Just around."

The answer was noncommittal and she found it bugging her. "Where's 'around'?" She asked a little jokingly, and the fox looked away with a sad frown.

After a few more steps it seemed he finally had an answer: "I'd go visit some friends." He stated quietly, and her ears twitched at that.

"Oh? Who did you visit? Do I know them?" She couldn't help but feel a little excited, she'd never heard him talk about any of his other friends before, in fact she'd sometimes thought he didn't have any others.

"You used to know them." He muttered sadly, and her ears twitched again, the doe realizing that this wasn't going to be a happy story. She patiently waited even when the silence became very awkward, and eventually the fox spoke up: "I used to be friends with a weasel named Travis, and Gideon."

She stumbled upon hearing the name and looked up at him in shock. The fox had an ashamed look while his collar light blazed yellow, and she had to consider the information. He'd been friends with that fox? How? Why?

"Where'd you meet?" The question came out of her lips right as soon as she thought it, and immediately she clamped her lips shut and looked away. Despite this, there wasn't long before she heard a reply.

"We had a tree we'd climbed, and there was a large hollow around the midway point." Her fox spoke slowly before pausing, and she did her best not to interrupt despite wanting to know more. "We'd talk about whatever we wanted in there, and I'd ask him what it was like to live in a family of foxes." There was a deep longing to his tone and she couldn't help but feel sad as one of her other questions was unintentionally answered. The Grey's were the only other foxes in the county, of course he'd be curious about what it was like for other foxes to grow up in anything that could be considered a 'normal' fox household.

"I'd like to see that place sometime." She replied, instead deciding that right now, how the two met didn't really matter.

"I don't go there anymore." He replied with a sullen look, and though she was tempted to ask further about it, she decided against it.

"All right, then we won't. So where should we visit in town again?" She asked back with a forced smile. She already knew where they were going, but it would help to change the subject.

* * *

Throughout the following months the two would keep themselves in check while they were outside the fox's room, and they'd keep snuggling, kissing and watching movies together when they were in the one place they wouldn't be disturbed. This started to grow harder when the snow began to fall however, as the fox seemed to grow more and more restless as the winter rolled in, though thanks to what she'd learned from the book on fox behaviour, Judy was aware it wasn't fully his fault.

It became more and more common in their day-to-day interactions to see the fox's collar light turn yellow when she drew near, or when the day was almost done and they were close to being alone, and eventually something had to give.

That day would come when the two were working on cleaning up another dinner. It wasn't nearly intense as Christmas, though that was on the horizon, it was still a fairly large cleanup that needed to be done, and Judy glanced over at the fox at the wrong time, right before she'd stepped in a puddle of water.

Fortunately she hadn't been carrying any dishes and she managed to catch herself on a table instead of falling on the floor. Unfortunately her balance hadn't stabilized when she caught the table and some of her face landed in a bit of blueberry pie. She'd heard a gasp behind her at the fall, and then restrained laughter coming once her face was covered in the desert and she spun around to glare at the fox.

"You're not helping." She muttered as she looked around to see what she could use to clean the food off. A napkin or paper towel would be nice, but most around her had already been used.

"Sure I am." The fox announced as she heard him walk closer. "Look at me and hold still."

Out of curiosity she did as he asked, the fox walking right up in front of her, before sticking his tongue out and licking a large portion of blueberry pie off her cheek. In shock she stood still while he licked a little more, and a little more, until all that remained was a tiny bit around her lips. Her foot started tapping as she could see where he was going with this, and then they both closed the gap together and kissed.

Unfortunately just because dinner was over for the night didn't mean everyone had retired for the evening, and both fox and rabbit were too lost in their own world to care about anyone who'd show up around them, right up until somebody stumbled across them.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Thundered out a voice, and both fox and bunny broke apart quickly, the fox almost immediately getting shocked by his collar at the sudden interruption while Judy nearly leapt straight up in surprise, only to turn to the door and find her horrified and angry father standing there, several sheets of paper in his hands.

Both teenagers watched as the patriarch of the household grew more and more furious, before ending his glare looking straight at Judy. "What happened here Vicky?" He demanded.

"I-I..." She began to stammer, not even thinking to correct the mistaken name, only to be interrupted by the fox.

"I made her kiss me sir." The fox whispered out in a voice almost too small for even the rabbits to hear as he looked down at the floor, his head low. His collar triggered again right then, though since her father did not have the remote in hand she assumed it was because of his internal dread.

For a second her father looked back and forth between them again, Judy shooting a wandering glance to the fox, although he only shook he head in return. "Fox, come." Her father demanded as he turned around and left the doorway, right as other feet began to sound in the hallway, and other heads began to poke into the room, no doubt wondering what was going on.

The fox followed him, and Judy moved to go with him, only for the fox to shake his head again. Not willing to let him go alone Judy waited just a bit longer, and then followed him along with the growing crowd of curious rabbits. To her surprise her father did not head anywhere public to discipline the fox, instead he headed for his own room, and motioned for the fox to enter. The Vulpine did as instructed, head still held low, and then her father shut and locked the door. Judy's heart sank a little as she realized that whatever was going to happen was going to happen later, though she did not know when, or even if it would happen later in this room.

"For those of you who are curious as to what's going on, Bon and I will tell you in the morning." Her father declared as he turned around to face the crowd. "For those of you who want a show, you're going to be disappointed. Now if you don't mind, I believe I have a list of presents to send to Santa." Finished her father, brandishing the list and walking off.

A few curious rabbits stayed behind at the door to see if he was bluffing or not, but most seemed to accept there would be no demonstration until later and followed off after the clan patriarch. Kit or adult, most rabbits were very curious to see what they were going to get for Christmas and Judy knew everything and everyone would be on that list, and her father had probably only caught them because he had been looking for the vulpine so the fox would know who to hand each present to.

Over time more rabbits left the hallway that led to her parent's bedroom, but Judy never did. The more that left just meant that she could creep a little closer and eventually she was the only one left. This time she checked the hallways to make sure there was nobody who'd walk by, and then rapped her knuckles on the door while attempting to whisper through the keyhole.

"Fox, are you there?" She spoke with hope, and was rewarded with a slight sniffle on the other side.

"I ruined it didn't I?" The fox asked solemnly. Internally Judy knew that whatever they had going was now stopped dead in the water, but outwardly she tried to put on a brave facade.

"No, no, he didn't punish you out here, why would he wait to punish you in there?" She asked back, only to receive no reply. "Why did you take all the blame?" She tried changing the subject.

"Because it's my fault." Was the only answer.

"No it's not, I chose to stand there, and maybe I chose to fall onto the pie!" She retorted, hearing a slight gasp on the other side.

"Really?"

"No, the pie was an accident." She confessed and heard a slight chuckle on the other side. "I did choose to stand there though, this is my fault too."

"Only one of us needs to get punished for it." He replied and she frowned.

"Well it's going to be both of us because I'm not leaving." She retorted, before sitting down with her back to the door.

The fox would try for a few minutes to ask her to leave, but her mind was made up. She'd continue waiting here until her parents returned, and then she'd attempt to make the fox's punishment as light as possible. After everything that had happened to them, she had no intention of leaving him in a bind again.

* * *

By the time her parents came back, Judy was feeling a little sleepy. Some rabbits had passed in the hallway and gave her odd glances, but she'd just make up a lie about 'making sure the fox doesn't get out' and they'd walk away with a small smile on their faces. Of course that excuse was dropped the second her parents stood in front of her, and she quickly hopped to her feet to explain the situation to the confused looking rabbits, apparently neither of them having expected one of their kits to be waiting there.

"Mom, dad, please, before you do anything to-" She began, only to be interrupted by her mother.

"It's good you're here Jude, we were just talking about you." The older doe stated, shocking Judy into silence and not just because her mother remembered her nickname. "Come inside." Her mother ordered as she pulled out a key.

It didn't take long for the three of them to get inside her parent's room, and though Judy was very pleased to see the fox again, the vulpine looking just as scared and ashamed as before, she resisted the urge to jump and hug him, though she still walked over near his side before turning around to face her two parents. "Tell us both what happened." Her father demanded.

"I made her kiss me-" The fox began, only to immediately get cut off by Judy before he could say anything further.

"That's not true!" She yelled out as she frowned at the fox, only to be interrupted in turn by her mother.

"Jude, we know you think he's your friend, but right now we'd like to know what happened and why, you don't need to cover for him." Her mother spoke in almost a patronizing tone that made Judy's blood boil.

"I'm not covering for him," She hissed out, "And he didn't make me kiss him!"

Her father seemed to ignore her words as he began to glare at the fox. "Why did you do it?" He asked, and Judy tried to think of any sort of quick excuse that would make sense.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a yelp, and she turned to see a red light on the fox's collar, though another quick glance revealed neither of her parents even had their remotes out. Still, their glares continued until the shock faded and the fox opened his mouth: "It's the winter sir." He began to croak out, and Judy prepared to butt in the second he tried to downplay her involvement. "It puts strange thoughts into my head and makes me act like a different mammal." He tensed up as he finished speaking, as if he expecting a shock or a blow, but to both his and Judy's surprise, none came.

Instead, a sigh came from her mother as she turned to face her father directly. "Looks like it happened Stu, what should we do?" Her voice sounded sad, resigned and Judy couldn't make sense out of a single word of it.

"I don't know Bon, we can't do either of the first two things the book suggested." Replied her father, his voice becoming equally as strained.

"If I think you're suggesting the third-" Her mother began with a harsh glare.

"I'm not, I didn't list it because it was never an option." Her father replied, raising his hands up defensively before looking down at his kit and the fox again, a tired look in his eye. "Jude, you remember the training manual right?" He asked and she searched her head for an appropriate response.

She could lie and say yes. There were very few things she remembered about it though, and everything else she'd been glad she'd forgotten. "It's been a while." She settled on a noncommittal answer, and that seemed to be enough for her parents.

"Well what's happening is that historically, foxes go through a mating season in the winter." Her dad began, and Judy blinked in surprise. Had the training manual included that information? If so that would have greatly helped her last year. "In this time they find themselves... hard to control, even domesticated foxes." Her father briefly glanced over at the fox, but the vulpine kept his head down and refused to meet her father's gaze. "There are three steps owners take to deal with these, but right now we can't do any..." He paused as he looked away from her and up to her mother, Bonnie have a conflicted look on her face, as if she was angry, but also sad.

"Bun, you need to keep this a secret." Her mother stated and Judy blinked again in surprise.

"A secret?" She squeaked out, not quite believing what she was hearing.

"Yes, mating season's hard for maturing foxes, especially when we can't use any of the steps to make it easier, and you don't want your siblings going after him again do you?" Her mother continued and Judy quickly shook her head. This seemed like some sort of crazy dream.

"And you." Her father stated as he drew everyone's attention back to the fox. "I expected better from you, if I catch you taking advantage of my little girl again, I'll make sure you regret it." Judy had half a mind to argue back, but the other half recognized the tone of finality in the statement and she froze. Was this it?

The fox nodded. "Yes sir." He whispered out.

"Good, I expect you to go to your room, and in the morning I expect you to come find me immediately, I've got this year's Christmas list for you to hand out." Her father stated, her mother nodded, and then the door was unlocked and open. For a moment, neither teenager moved, but then Judy grabbed the fox by the wrist and ran out of the room before whatever good luck the two had seemed to come across could run out.

* * *

After that point, Judy stopped helping the fox with the everyday tasks when she could, although that was because the fox asked her to stop, rather than because she'd wanted to. He'd point out it would probably be a better idea to wait until her parents had mostly forgotten the incident, or at least wait until winter was over before they were seen in the same room again, although that only applied to public rooms, and Judy successfully argued back that there wouldn't ever be any reason for them to be interrupted so long as they still met in his room.

For a while that was what happened, and Judy believed that they'd managed to play with fire and somehow not get burned, though occasionally she'd reflect back on the conversation with a frown. There were apparently three solutions to mating season for domestic foxes, but what were they and what was stopping her parents from doing them?

She wouldn't question it too much, and eventually it would mostly fade from her mind. She didn't think too much of it in January, and when her 16th birthday rolled around she temporarily forgot about it for two reasons. The first was because she was now technically of legal age in Bunnyburrow, and the second of which was because she could now get her full driver's license. The former was more important in her mind though, this meant she could vote, drink, have sex, own property and even move, though the third item in that list was still off the table in her mind, at least for now. Once she'd found a way to free the fox and didn't have to worry about her family maybe they could 'experiment' with safe methods, but until then it would have to wait.

Freeing him might become easier now that she could technically own property, as all this meant is that she'd just need to find a way to get him transferred into her ownership from her parents, and then she could set him free whenever she wanted to. Once she could do that, he'd have all the same rights she did, at least in theory.

Unfortunately that ended up being far harder than she'd hoped, as by the time the fox had his 17th birthday he was still the property of her mother and father, despite her efforts. She tried asking them what it would take for them to give up the fox. She'd asked how much it would cost to buy the fox. She'd asked what they planned to do with the fox when they'd eventually step down as the heads of the family and she'd asked if she could take the fox with her when she finally moved, as she made it very clear she was still trying to go Zootopia's Police Academy. In all cases not only was she denied in her requests, but they refused to give her the smallest tidbits of information on any of their future plans for the fox, or what it would take to get him from them.

* * *

Judy would be working in the fields during her 16th summer when an odd thought occurred to her. If it wasn't possible to get the fox through her family by playing nice, maybe she could get him released by playing dirty. It was a thought she didn't like thinking because it no doubt meant the fox would have to get hurt, but if she could convince him to go along with the plan, then maybe she could set him free by having her parents violate a part of their contract with whoever the fox's parents were.

It was with this thought process that she came up with a plan: If they couldn't use one of the three methods to combat what he felt during mating season, then that likely meant those methods were against the contract, so if she could only find out what those were then she could pick the least harmful one, convince the fox to go along with it, and then he'd be a free citizen!

She was happy enough with the plan she immediately took a break to go find her father, eventually spotting him working on a tractor with some of the boys, and she'd ask for the training manual for a 'refresher'. In turn he'd promise to loan it to her after supper, and soon she was holed up again in a study room to scan through it.

She'd chosen the room for many reasons. Partially because she was actually less likely to be bothered here by a curious sibling than elsewhere, even her own room. If somebody was looking for her they weren't likely to search here until they'd gone over her room first, ever since the fox behaviours book her siblings had no interest in her reading material, and she would never read such a vile, disgusting pile of filth such as the training manual inside the fox's room.

As Judy scanned through the book, she grew annoyed when she realized it actually did contain a section about what winter meant to fox's and she confirmed that if she'd just read the whole thing when she was younger she wouldn't have been so confused. This didn't make her like it anymore though, it just further frustrated her to give the book any sort of credit, especially when it came to its first suggestions.

"Medicate them." She muttered the topic out loud with disgust clear in her voice. The first passage was all about how supplements were apparently commonplace in treating domestic foxes, and according to the book had no lasting side effects, not that she believed it. Still it did seem like a simple enough option if she got a hold of any of the medication the book suggested, she'd just need to make sure it actually was safe first, so she wrote a few notes down.

"Breed them?" She muttered with a raised brow when she came to the next portion of the book. This one stated it was directed towards fox breeders and recommended to just let nature take its course, let tods find vixens... and that's where she stopped reading. She had zero interest in going for this option and her fox behaviours book had told her that if the fox really did like her a lot, then he'd have zero interest in it too. Still, it was odd that her parents thought that this was impossible, maybe they just didn't want to take the fox out to temporarily find a mate? It wasn't as if they were going to bring one here after all.

"Neutering..." She read the third option out loud when she got to it, but just a short while into her read her eyes went wide and she slammed the book shut, the noise loud enough to startle other rabbits in the study. With great anger, she ignored the rabbits now shushing her, picked up the book, and instead of making a fire to burn it in she'd hand it back in to her father with only the greatest of willpower preventing her from telling him exactly what she thought of the thing. That and the fact that he and her mother both seemed to find that option abhorrent too helped out a bit, and soon she was off to find the fox.

Nowhere in the rabbit's mind was she prepared to accept what they'd suggested was an actual thing, and right now she just wanted to forget all about it with pleasant company.

* * *

A week later and still in the middle of summer Judy would have an odd thought as bits of the training manual floated to mind again and again. It was one of the downsides of working in a field, it gave her far too much time to think, and soon she was wondering why her parents refused to even medicate the fox for the winter. Surely medication on its own wasn't against the contract, as they'd given him pain relief when his arm was broken, so what was different here? Had his parents somehow made a bizarre contract that just banned what medication could be taken for mating season? If that was true, then did they just refuse the second option because they found it disgusting?

It was these questions that bothered her for days, and eventually they got the best of her, making her wait until everyone else was well and truly asleep before she stole through the house at night again, though this time it wasn't for her parents door. No, this time it was towards the family safe.

She'd repeated and attempted to memorize the combination again and again when she had been preparing to run away, and now it seemed as if her efforts were rewarded as she stood in front of the safe, entered in the right combination, and soon it was swinging open, displaying a shocking amount of paperwork on the inside, all of which were tucked into various folders.

She'd spend most of the night sorting through the work, until she eventually came across a folder with a name she didn't recognize: 'Wilde'. Taking a guess she pulled it out and opened it, to be greeted by a birth certificate and passport of a certain fox with the last name of 'Wilde' and a blank first name. The birth date made it clear that this was exactly the fox she thought it was, and soon she was looking through the rest of the papers in the same folder, hoping for anything more. She quickly came across a contract, a rather large one consisting of several pages with several stipulations and restrictions printed across them, and it didn't take long to figure out this was the contract that her parents had initially made, not least of which because it stated that they'd pay for the fox's services with food and money, while making sure that he would still be able to see his parents, at any time provided they were in the area, or a minimum of one day every two weeks if they were not.

She briefly skimmed through the first contract before moving to the last piece of paperwork in the folder, that of the second contract. That was clearly what it was as not only was the date it was made on different, but the terms and conditions of the contract seemed to be nothing like the first. In this one it made it clear her family would get the fox in exchange for not pressing legal charges for 'breach of contract', but it also had what she was looking for, a list of conditions that would render it null and void:

'In the event of permanent injury/disability, grievous injury, life-threatening illness, and/or permanent scarring afflicting motor, nerve or memory functions, the right of custody will return to the indenture's parents, Robin and Marian Wilde.' For a second her eyes scanned over the conditions, before they slowly rolled back through and focused on the second of those presented. You did not grow up in a farm consisting of hundreds without knowing what 'grievous injury' meant, and slowly, very slowly her arms began to shake, her legs began to twitch, and she felt the blood in her body rush to her head as she briefly saw red.

There was no need to free the fox from the contract, as the fox was already free from the contract, and had been free for the past seven years. Suddenly her family's actions took on a new light in retrospect. Them no longer targeting him at all, her parents simply letting them go from the room even after they were caught, the way everyone was trying to be pleasant, had it all been a lie just so that they could keep their slave without anyone getting curious enough to look up if they'd broken their side of the agreement?

That night Judy would not put the 'Wilde' folder back in the safe. She would take it with her over to her room, and she'd be so mad that it would be hours before she fell asleep, though that was nothing compared to how she was when she woke up.

* * *

When Judy woke up it was early, early enough that she'd be surprised if anyone else was up and she blamed that away on her being so furious when she fell asleep. It was pure unfocused anger that had ran through her after she read the file, but now it was aimed at two very particular targets, and they were ones that she didn't have an issue in waking up a little early.

Her walk to her parent's room was undisturbed and it was just as well, for she did not want to be bothered. When she reached her parent's door she simply burst on through it with enough noise to startle both mammals under their covers, and just to make sure they were up she slammed the door.

Darkness enveloped the room for a second before her parents could hit the switch nearest their bed, turning on the lights and then both older rabbits lay tired and blinking at who'd interrupted their rest.

"Who?" Mumbled her father while her mother groaned and attempted to sit up. It was a small mercy that they were both wearing nightclothes, but right now Judy wasn't focused on that.

"It's Judy, and we need to talk." She seethed. Her parents took a second longer to get their bearings before they suddenly shot into a flurry of activity, hopping up, quickly racing over to their dressers to grab clothes and sorting through everything with a speed that would have been impressive had Judy not been so mad.

"What's the emergency Jude?" Her father asked as he quickly examined a pair of overalls.

"THIS!" Judy yelled out as she held up the folder and both parents stopped to look, freezing when they saw what she held in her hands.

"Where did you get that?" Her mother gasped.

"The safe, exactly where I know you two stored it!" She yelled back. Quickly she opened it up in her arms, flipping through the papers in it to get to the contract, not even caring when the old contract fell on the ground. "I saw this!" She spoke with fury when she pulled out the newer contract, dropping the folder in the process, not that it was needed any longer.

Both parents looked at each other, and the back at her, their ears falling behind their heads as they seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. The silent admission only making her more infuriated. "You broke the contract, and you never told him!" She shouted, if only to get a response.

Her father was the first to speak up: "We didn't mean to break the contract Jude, and we had good reason for keeping him, didn't we Bon?" Her father asked and Judy shifted her glare to her nodding mother. Strangely the looks on their faces, while ones of shame, also appeared... patient, as if they expected this.

"Yes we did, and do you know why we did it Bun?" Judy's mother asked her, and Judy tried to avoid playing into the question.

"I don't care why you did it, you should have returned him to his family!" Judy demanded, and both older rabbits gave her a sad look.

"We tried Bun, but they weren't in their shelter when we called and we have no other way of contacting them." Her mother stated and Judy blinked.

"You could search them, their names are right here!" She argued back as she pointed out the names.

"I'm sorry to tell you sweetie," Her father began, "But Wilde is a very common last name for foxes, and both Robin and Marian are common first names, just like John Buckson's a common name for deer buck's. We did try, but I'm not even certain they still live in the city we picked him up from."

Some of her anger drained at that as she tried to think of what to say next. "You still should have set him free!" She hissed, only for both of her parents to move together before giving her a sad parental look, the kind one would give their own child when their kit was mad about the world purely because they didn't understand it. Judy had seen them give it enough during many of her sibling's teenage years and she was further annoyed in seeing it here.

"Where would he go Jude?" Asked her father. "He has no money, no family, barely any papers, I don't think anyone besides us would take him in, and at least here he gets food and schooling in exchange for doing a few things each day." Judy found herself considering the thought despite herself. If he really was kicked out or set free and left at the age of ten, would that have been better than what came later here? At the very least it would have been more likely he'd have died...

She shook her head to dispel the thought, after all it was still a weak argument. "You should have told him and at least give him a choice!" She returned. That was what was more important here, he didn't know, and therefore didn't have an option.

Her mother frowned at that. "You want us to give him a choice between work and a good home, and death?" Her mother asked back and Judy's glare intensified.

"YES!" She answered, and both her parent's faces were taken up with shock. "You should have given him the choice, and if he chose to stay here, then you should have split up his tasks with everyone else, you shouldn't have continued to make him think he was a slave who needed to worry the second he stepped into the same room with anyone else!" She demanded as suddenly a younger memory flashed through her mind. 'They're all just pretending to be nice and I don't know why.' The fox had once cried to her, though now she certainly knew why. If they continued to be mean were they afraid he'd leave, and then they wouldn't have their slave anymore? To make matters worse, if he was a free mammal in their care, then that meant legally they could be held responsible for his well-being, at least everything that happened after he was freed in any case. Were they worried about those consequences and was that why they stopped?

"Well I'm sorry that we're not going to give him the option to die." Her mother finally replied sarcastically as she frowned over at her kit. "I'm so sorry that we fed him and treated him right after he was freed, and we're both sorry that we're giving him a full education that'll allow him to leave and get any real job later in life." Her mother continued with disdain in her voice, and soon Judy's father was giving his daughter the same look.

"I don't care, I'm going to tell him he's free." She replied as she began to turn away.

"Wait Jude! Just wait one year!" Her father suddenly shouted behind her, and it was purely because of the oddness of the request that she didn't turn the door handle and leave.

"Why one year?" She asked back as she spun around to face them both again.

Both parents seemed pleased that she asked, as both seemed to smiles as if they knew they'd won the argument. "You're both in your last years of school," her father began, "If you tell him now and he decides to leave, he'll be a dropout, no school in Bunnyburrow will take him, he'll have a hard time being accepted and trusted if any school in the rest of the county accepts him, and even if they did he doesn't have the money to pay for classes."

The explanation rolled through her mind and as she tried picking it for holes, she found her anger slowly and slowly draining away. They were technically right, if he wanted to do well he would need to graduate high-school level classes, he was well on his way there and leaving would make that go to waste... but if she didn't tell him then she'd be just as complicit in his continued slavery, even if she had good intentions.

She searched through her mind for a possible solution, with great relief managed to find it. "Why does he have to be here?" She asked and her parents blinked in surprise.

"Pardon?" Her father asked back.

"Why does he need to live in his room in a burrow full of mammals he's scared of? Why can't we put him up in one of the barns, have somebody like Alex come out to teach him and not force him to do the housework?" Her anger was slowly rising back up as she thought through her own argument again, though her parents didn't seem to be as interested in her points.

"Bun, on a farm everyone must pull their own weight, that's why we all have to work at something!" Her mother defended her points, shaky though they were.

"He's been pulling at least three times his own weight while you owned him, and you never changed that when he became free!" Judy countered, and surprisingly enough, her mother briefly glanced away. "If you want to make things right, you'll put him up in one of the empty barns, give him a tutor and not make him do any more housework, and that's if he wants to stay!"

"What's the alternative Jude?" Her father asked as he crossed his arms.

Judy felt the anger drain out of her again as she considered what she could do if her parents didn't do this, or if they refused to let him go anyway. "I'll go to the sheriff." She stated and both older rabbit's eyes went wide.

"You'd throw us in prison over a fox?" Her father demanded, and she nodded slightly, saddened by her own answer. What they did was certainly terrible, but that didn't mean she wanted to hurt them in that way.

The three stared at each other for a short while, before her father looked away and her mother let out a sigh. "All right, tell him." She finally said, and Judy turned to go, not happy with what she was forced to say, but at peace with the fact that it didn't need to come to that.

* * *

"Fox? Fox?" Judy asked as she stood over the fox's bed, shaking him a little to wake him up. It seemed to work and soon he was groaning, rolling over onto his side and trying to focus his eyes on her.

"Carrots?" He asked and Judy gave a somber smile.

"I've got great news, you're free!" She announced and he blinked.

"Could you run that by me again?" He spoke as he slowly moved into a sitting position and focused his eyes on her again.

"What I mean, is that the contract that made you a slave to my family stopped applying if you had a grievous injury, like a broken arm. Ever since you had it you've been a free mammal." She tried explaining it as succinctly as she could, but unlike when she left her parents room, being here was making her more and more excited.

"Pardon?" He asked and she held up the contract to him. With shaking fingers he took it and began to read, while Judy patiently waited for him to finish.

When he set it down though, he looked scared and his collar light was a solid yellow, as if the revelation itself hurt him in some way. "Is this real?" He finally asked.

"It's real, it says right here that this contract ceases to apply to you now, so you're free!" Judy answered, pointing out the 'grievous injury' portion to the disbelieving fox, though oddly enough he didn't look any happier.

"But what do I do now?" He asked with fear in his voice, and Judy found her previous enthusiasm dimming. The way he said it, the way he was looking at her now was as if there was no real hope to his question, and she was determined to find something.

"Well I've already talked to them about this, now you can..." While the rest of the burrow was waking up Judy was explaining her plan to the vulpine, including the changes to his living conditions and mentioning something very important to him that she hadn't mentioned to her parents yet. As soon as they had graduated, she was planning on leaving, and neither mammal would need to see the burrow again.

* * *

The fox would go along with her plan, and his transition into the barn would go smoothly. Calling it a barn though was a bit of a misnomer, as it at had working power, insulation and running water, and for all intents and purposes was essentially a miniature house on top of a giant garage. The bottom part was a workshop, while the top would occasionally use to house guests that couldn't fit in the burrow, though this barn was meant mostly for deer and so rabbits (or foxes in this case) wouldn't find it to difficult to use thankfully. It was more than a fit for the fox though, as everything was so different, so much better than what he was used to, though for some reason Judy found him still giving terrified looks to everything. One time she came out to see what he was doing during a break from working in the fields, only to find him sleeping in a closet on top of a blanket, the vulpine having chosen it over the mattress in the adjoining room.

It wasn't the only time that anything like that happened, as it seemed that the better his environment was, the less comfortable the fox found himself. Most appliances in the barn were not used, as even though she was sure the fox knew how to use them, it seemed he chose not to. Some rooms he simply never entered, mainly the workshop that took up a large front part of the barn and she didn't understand that either. In fact, the only times he seemed to use the each room to its fullest, be it relaxing on the couch or resting on the bed were when she had to talk him into it, as most other times he'd be far too tense and constantly watching one of the doors, as if at any moment somebody would come in to punish him for enjoying himself.

It was like this that most of their year would continue, and to everyone's surprise he would show up in the burrow one last time. It would be during that year's Christmas, the fox would enter, and then intentionally assist in handing out gifts, though he only stuck to giving the gifts to the smallest of kits and when that was done he was off again. It was a curious sight, but it did give Judy an idea for later.

She'd meet him that night inside the barn when the fox was clearly trying to fall asleep, and thankfully on the bed this time.

"Fox?" She'd ask him and his ears would twitch. "When we leave for the city, you're going to need a proper name, do you have any ideas?" Her voice was hopeful, and it seemed to gain his interest.

"I've never thought about it." He replied as he sat up and turned to face her.

"How about Nicholas?" She asked and he seemed to pause.

"Nicholas?" He returned and she nodded.

"Yes, Nicholas, like the Saint!" She exclaimed happily. For a second he watched her, and then a rumble went through his body as small laughs escaped his throat, though his collar light remained green. Though she frowned she didn't interrupt, and waited as patiently as it was possible for him to talk.

"Carrots, Saint Nicholas is a big fat polar bear!" He exclaimed and she rolled her eyes.

"Then forget the Saint part, you'll just be Nicholas, or Nick for short." She replied as she moved over to the bed, and after a second's hesitation climbed in beside him, much to his surprise.

"You're sleeping here tonight Carrots?" He asked her warily and she nodded.

"If that's fine by you, Nicholas Wilde." She replied, as she lay her head down, only to feel something wet hit her cheek.

The thought of what it was didn't last long, as soon his head came down atop hers as she heard the sleepy Reynard muttering to himself: "Nicholas Wilde, I like that."

His voice held pure joy and his happy tears mad her smile, and soon they were both sound asleep.

* * *

After Christmas and the new year came, it would only be a few months before Judy and the fox, Nicholas Wilde, would both be graduates. Though she'd attend the graduation, Judy would skip everything after in favour of heading home, grabbing everything she could in a suitcase, taking one of her parent's collar remotes, and then leaving with the fox immediately towards the train station.

Regardless of what her family had told him about just waiting for the fox- Nick, being let go freely she decided not to trust them, though that decision hurt her deeply. Despite everything they still felt like family, and not being able to trust them would never sit right with her. These were the mammals she'd been born with, raised with, matured with, and now she was leaving them without even a goodbye.

The walk to the station was filled with silence, rabbit and fox both striding ahead as they stared out, worry clear in both of their postures. Judy could swear that at any second her family would show up, their worst aspects on display and they'd either choose not to let Nick go, or come up with some new lie to try and keep them both there. Maybe they'd even convince the police somehow that they were in the right and both mammals would both be picked up, but despite her fears that never happened. She wondered if the fox was having similar thoughts, but if he was he certainly wasn't showing them.

When they made it to the station Judy went up to the booth, and purchased two tickets, the fox slinking away behind her, unnoticed by the disinterested goat who happened to be attending the booth, the mammal looking like it was only running on the mug of coffee sitting on the counter. Soon after that she then moved to sit with her fox, both of them the only mammals waiting on the platform, both of them in the fearful postures they'd taken in the walk here.

When the train arrived and opened its doors, the two were very quick to climb inside, but even given the assurance of the train around them they did not relax, not even when the doors closed, and the train began to leave the station. When minutes passed and the town was no longer in sight Judy finally snuggled into the side of the fox sitting on the seat beside her, and she felt him visibly relax as he pulled her close.

"Thank you Carrots." He choked out through tears, his tail struggling to move even as it was pinned between them.

"You're welcome Nick." She replied, before pulling out the remote and pushing the release button.

The fox gave another choke at that. "Is this legal?" He asked as he reached up to his now loose collar.

"Yes, as soon as we left Bunnyburrow's limits. Where we're going free mammals don't need to wear collars." Judy answered happily, and Nick dropped the collar to the floor with a happy sigh before leaning against her.

* * *

The train ride would be long and normally fairly boring, but to Judy the entire trip felt like one of the greatest milestones in her life. On a surface level this wasn't too different to the running away plan she had when she was much younger, although back then she didn't have a number of things that she had now, such as the debit card in her wallet, the savings account all of the Hopps children get when they come of age, or the exact details for what they needed to do when they got into the city. If worst came to worst, and she wouldn't be accepted into the academy for some time, then she'd find another job elsewhere and stay in one of the places she'd looked up, those being several apartments that she'd be able to afford for quite a while as she waited to be accepted. Finding another job in the meantime shouldn't be too difficult, as there were several florists and greenhouses in the city that would no doubt appreciate somebody who knew a lot about plant husbandry, and eventually her patience would be rewarded.

When night started to fall Judy would look over at Nick, the fox no longer the tense and nervous thing he seemed to be when the train started, and she wondered how he'd adjust to life in the city. He might adjust well to newer mammals, or maybe he'd not adjust at all. He'd find a job, that much she was sure of and she was also sure it could definitely be one that paid well, though regardless in how well he did, she'd meant what she said to him back when they'd confirmed they meant more than friends to each other, and she'd support him in any way she could. If he needed therapy to help adjust or overcome what had happened to him, which she was very sure of, she'd be happy to find a way to pay for it and when he would be able to stand on his own two feet with an honest smile on his face and not a thought spent about cruel mammals who might only be pretending to be nice, then she knew both of them would feel at complete peace.

Eventually Judy would climb out of their seats and Nick would come up with her to the observation room on the top of the train. Together they'd see the magnificent city up ahead, lit by lights upon buildings that rose into the sky, with a sign just outside its bounds displaying proudly: "Welcome to Zootopia."

The subtitle below it however was what Judy found herself more drawn towards: "Where anyone can be anything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends 'A Fox Named Nicholas'. We see them leave together, Nick gets his name in this AU, and the two of them leave to a brighter future in a city that'll let them pursue their dreams. Judy's of being a cop who can help others, while Nick gets to finally be free. As I said before, ultimately uplifting if you think about it, at least on a surface level (Nick's going to have very severe issues, there's no getting around that) as despite the depressing start, it does end with a lot of hope for the two.
> 
> Of course there are loose ends. I can predict now that some people are going to be mad the karma fairy didn't come get the Hopps clan. I'm certain that others are going to be further mad at what's suggested by the training manual, and I know that others still are going to be angry at what the Hopps are revealed to have done in this chapter, but I stand by what I said earlier. I'm not going to force a sudden gas leak that kills them all, so it's a sad fact that they'll continue to live on, and the most we can do is hope for the best. Granted by the end of the story they're no longer poisoning their kits minds against predators anymore and they're not trying to be overly cruel to Nick, so while I don't think any of the current characters in this family could be redeemed, I think there's hope for future Hopps generations.
> 
> I'm actually fairly surprised that nobody guessed where Nick would get his name, though I guess now that it's revealed it's pretty obvious isn't it?
> 
> In closing, I'm actually very glad I wrote all this out before posting it, as it allowed me to see people in the comments try to predict where the story was going to go, and even stumble across major points by accident. There's upsides and downsides to this however, as it means it'll take me a very long time to post new stories, but at least when I do you know they'll be finished and you won't need to wait for weeks to read in them full.
> 
> Some time in the future I likely will publish a sequel, as I do have a sequel planned and partially written called 'When Dreams are Just Dreams'. It'll be a while before we get there though as I'm not going to publish it until it's finished, and even then I'm not going to update this story to link to it. It's always been my opinion that if you like a story enough then it doesn't need to be tied to a sequel like that, and I'd rather not have somebody read this and then feel like they need to read the sequel as if it was some mandatory thing to enjoy the full story.


	7. What Could Have Been

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "A new chapter? But you said this was only a five- I mean six chapter work!"
> 
> Yes, so funny story about that. When I set out to write a fairly short story about a bunny growing up with a fox and tell it mainly from her perspective, I came across an interesting problem. The audience should only know what she knew, except in rare circumstances where it was important enough to the story that I deviate from this.
> 
> Quite frankly, this work was always going to have an unsatisfying ending if you wanted justice to be done to the Hopps clan, since this isn't a story where I'm going to make up something to punish those who undoubtedly deserve it, just to punish them. I'd rather something like that grow organically and in the timeframe I was working with, that wouldn't have happened. As such this story was always going to end with the Hopps not having any sort of retribution brought against them, because there wasn't much means in which to do that.
> 
> Sure I could make Judy go to the sherif and arrest them for not telling Nick he was free, however the reason she doesn't in the story is because they're still her parents, she still loves them, and despite what they've done she doesn't want that sort of harm to befall them.
> 
> I could have made Nick choose to go to the sherif and arrest them, but there's two reasons I didn't do that, and they tie into each other. In the story Nick is emotionally broken, as well as emotionally dependant on Judy. I know a number of people in the comments are saying that this romance doesn't feel right in this story, and you'd be correct, it doesn't because we're looking at a very damaged person rely on somebody else emotionally to get any sort of happiness in their day to day life. For this romance to feel completely right we'd need to go through a full healing process, which I'd also planned to detail in the sequel, but at the end of the story I still wanted to show that there was hope for the two.
> 
> This was a theme I was planning on examining in the sequel, 'When Dreams are Just Dreams', as Nick still has a ton of emotional baggage to work through and we haven't even really begun the healing process by the time the story was over. This is another reason the story ends in an unsatisfying way, so why did I end it there?
> 
> Simple, this story started with Nick being brought into the rabbit warren, and it ends with him leaving the rabbit warren. It's the tale of A Fox Named Nicholas as he passes through the rabbit warren as told through the eyes of the one who's closest to him.
> 
> If we were to get actual closure for the Hopps clan as a whole, well in this story that would take years, at least a decade and a half for the best case scenario to result if everything ends up going right.
> 
> So let's look at if that were to happen shall we? This is the true final chapter this time: 'What Could Have Been'.

"Mom, what's a 'domesticated predator?'" Judy blinked as she opened her eyes and leaned further back on the couch she currently sat on, before regarding the one who'd asked the question.

At first glance they'd appear to look like a young rabbit that hadn't reached their teenage years yet. They were one with a female voice, an orange-red colouration to their fur, slightly shorter ears ending in points, a fluffier tail that was longer than usual and shorter legs. If one was an expert (or another rabbit), they'd notice the longer arms, harder points on their fingertips and the longer feet, but the dead giveaway that this was no rabbit was the pointed teeth when they opened their mouth.

"Why do you want to know that sweetie?" Judy asked as she looked around the room for any other intruders, spotting no one besides the girl. Besides her, all she could see was her living room, with two couches against one wall each, both facing an angled T.V. propped up on a stand that held a number of kits movies.

"It's what we're going to learn about later in school, and I heard dad say he was one a little bit ago." The strange not-rabbit continued, though Judy only smiled at her 9-year old daughter.

"Have you asked your dad yet?" She began to push herself off the couch with tired movements. She'd come home from work, having finally finished at the precinct, only to arrive home while the rest of her family was out. She'd only meant to sit down, but it seemed as though she'd accidentally dozed off.

"No, he's playing with Carl and Micheal, I thought you could tell me." The little kit stated and Judy sighed.

"Let's go find him Samantha, this is something we should both tell you." Judy replied to her daughter as she forced herself up, and began moving towards the hallway.

Her current house wasn't luxurious, but it was a lot better than the apartments they had to stay in when they first got here. Still, her current home was enough and after living like how they used to, her current one was more than enough.

It had a living room, originally three bedrooms, a rec room, a kitchen and a few closets. It was small, quaint, and it certainly made it easy to find out where her husband and her other two kits currently were. She followed the noise directly over to her bedroom, and when she opened the door it she had to stifle a laugh at the sight.

"No fair!" "Get Off!" Her two 7-year old sons were there, both looking like slightly smaller versions of their sister, pinned against the bed in the room by the smugly smiling adult fox who was lying atop both. Apparently they'd wanted to 'wrestle' again and Nick had taken the easy way out.

Judy knocked at the door, and suddenly all three heads in the room shot up in the air and tried to turn towards to the door, before Nick sighed and moved to get up. "Sorry kits, playtime's over." He stated, Judy hearing their whines as they got up too.

Perhaps he thought it was time for bed, after all it seemed fairly late to her, but before her sons could move further Judy spoke up: "Stay here boys, Nick, Sam has a question for you." She looked down at her daughter at that, and the little kit nodded at her before moving into the room.

"Dad, what's a domesticated predator?" She asked and Nick froze for a second before sitting back further, the smallest of sad looks on his face. The two boys on the bed sat up at the question too, and soon they were also looking at their father.

"Hoo boy..." Nick began as he adjusted himself, moving closer to the edge of the bed, and his two sons came with him, one moving to each side of their father. He looked down at his hands for a few seconds, and Judy wondered if maybe it still wasn't enough time for him to tell her children about this.

Before she could suggest they do this another night however, Nick spoke up though his head remained down. "A domesticated predator is a predator that is bought and owned by another family. A long time ago, far before any of you were born, I used to be one of those." He said as she looked up at his three surprised kits, and then over to his wife, Judy giving him a supportive smile. "What that means is that I was considered to be property, a thing, just like your combs or backpacks are your property." He stated, looking around at his kits as he spoke, and occasionally one would nod.

"In my case I needed to do whatever it was they told me, cleaning up their home, putting out dishes for dinner, cleaning up afterwards, and that's what most domestic predators do. They aren't limited just by that though, technically the predators would need to do whatever's asked of them. Do you know what would happen if they said no?" Nick glanced to all three of his children, and in turn they all shook their heads. "Do you know what a shock collar is?" They nodded to that, and Judy could only be thankful her children would never need to wear one. "Well all domestic predators have them, and if they did something wrong, or if they didn't want to do something, or if their owners just felt like it they could just turn them on whenever they wanted."

"That's horrible!" Judy's daughter yelled out, and both parents nodded.

"It's worse if the rest of the family doesn't like you either, as they can do whatever they want to you and the collar makes it impossible to defend yourself..." Nick trailed off as a far-away look appeared in his eyes, and Judy gave a light cough. That seemed to snap the fox out of whatever unhappy memory he was going through and he gave a quick nod. "In any case, that's what a domestic predator is. They're just seen as a thing by the mammals who own them and they can do whatever they want with them."

That seemed to be where he was going to end it for tonight, and Judy would leave it at that. It seemed that even after this time it still wasn't easy to talk about.

The two would bid their kits goodnight from there, and once then they'd retire for the night themselves, though just before they'd fall asleep Judy had to bring her thoughts up to Nick.

"Nick?" She asked, getting a small hum in return. "When do you think we should tell the kits the whole story?"

Nick sighed. "We'll tell them, I'm just not sure when."

"It's not still hard to go back to?" She asked, but instead of flinching he shifted closer.

"It's not fun to remember, but I'll be just fine." His words had warmth care and love to them. She believed it. "Do you ever think about them?" He suddenly asked and her thoughts went in another direction.

"Who?" She asked back.

"The Hopps." Came his answer, though there was no bitterness to the tone, and no hate.

"No." She stated firmly, though it was a lie. On occasion she'd find herself wondering about what had happened to her siblings and even household as a whole, which included Bonnie and Stu.

"Sometimes I wonder if anything's changed with them." He spoke with a voice tinged in sadness. "I like to think that it could have."

"It's probably wishful thinking." She remarked and he gave an agreeable hum. The two would fall asleep shortly after that.

* * *

A few weeks later Judy actually would find out how her family was doing, though not because she had intended to. She would come home one day, still in uniform, to find her daughter working on the kitchen table as she wrote down notes from various books.

"Hey sweetie, what're you working on?" Judy asked as she looked around again and then homed in on her daughter, coming up just over Samantha's shoulder.

"We need to give a presentation on domesticated predators in front of class, so I'm working on that." She answered back, and Judy could see she was definitely doing that, with the title that she'd written out being 'Families that own the most predators'. The title could use work, so maybe she'd offer a better one later.

"What've you found?" Judy asked as she moved away, her throat felt a little parched so she'd just intended to get some water.

"A lot, did you know that the owners of the most domestic predators worldwide is a family of rabbits?" Asked her daughter excitedly, and Judy paused right as she grabbed her glass.

"No I didn't know that." She answered as she continued on her way. If there had been one family that would be like that, she'd never guessed it would be rabbits. "How many domesticated predators do they have?"

"Only twelve, but it's highest anyone's recorded." Samantha answered and Judy cocked her head. That was certainly a lot less than she'd been expecting for anything that was a world record.

"Did you find out why they have so many?" Judy asked absently. Maybe somebody there was a little sympathetic?

"I know they run a farm, maybe they needed the help." That made Judy pause again, though she dismissed this new thought as she poured herself some water. Plenty of rabbits had farms, and it wasn't as if only one of those families ever thought of using domesticated predators.

"They'd need a big farm then." She commented back before downing the glass.

"I don't know how big the farm is... I should look that up!" Her daughter spoke her thoughts aloud as she began to go through her books again with renewed interest.

"Do you know where they are?" Judy asked as she put her glass in the dishwasher.

"Yeah, they own a farm over in a place called Bunnyburrow." Her daughter answered and Judy froze for the third time that day. She knew of course that it had to be a different family, but that didn't prevent her from wondering.

"Do you know what the name of the farm is?" Judy asked as she slowly stood.

"Yeah, it's called the Hopps Family Farm." Her daughter answered and Judy's mind began to race.

* * *

Normally on her days off Judy would spend the time with her children or husband. Her hours could stretch long into the day so when the opportunity arose she'd take whatever chance she could to spend what she had left with those she cared most about, though today was an exception.

Today was an off day where she was driving out of the city, on a trip that she'd very rarely thought of making before, one which she felt was necessary now, and it seemed Nick was of the same mind.

Judy told him the day she'd found out that the Hopps apparently owned the most amount of domestic predators worldwide, and together they'd look up what they could. Though the internet wouldn't give them exactly what they were looking for, they did find a Furbook group, one which did have a number of predator pictures in locations that looked very familiar to her.

She'd grown up seeing the walls of the warren and the fields of the farm, so she immediately knew that this was the Hopps' warren. Flicking through other pictures revealed that it wasn't just the fox though, there also seemed to be pictures of a skunk, a weasel, a raccoon, a very young badger... that wasn't wearing a collar.

It wasn't just in the first picture she saw that badger in either. There were other pictures, all of whom were taken fairly close to the predator. There was the badger sitting among other rabbits and eating what seemed to be lunch, the badger dozing off under a tree, and then there were even a few selfies that the badger had taken, pictures of them smiling among equally young rabbits.

That was another thing Judy noticed as she flipped through the pictures, most of them had the predators smiling. The misery that had been present on her fox's face while he'd been in the burrow seemed nowhere to be found here, everyone just looked... well if it wasn't for the collars around the necks of the older predators she'd say they looked normal, compared to the city she currently resided in anyway.

It seemed wrong and felt wrong, as if the pictures were all fakes and she happened to be looking at another family with the same last name and living in the same burrow somehow, but no, also in the photos were occasional shots of rabbits that she definitely did recognize. Some her juniors, some her seniors, and it just made her all the more confused.

It bothered her enough that she'd talked to Nick about it and eventually they'd both agree that she might as well go see herself. Somebody needed to stay back with the kits, as there was no way they were coming and Judy knew that Nick would never want to go back either, so she went.

The drive out was a long and boring one, which wasn't helped by the terrain being all too familiar and boring to her. It did give her time to think though, time to wonder at what she should say, who she should talk to, and what she should prepare for.

By the time she arrived in Bunnyburrow she'd had a plan, although despite herself she found nervousness creeping into her system when she eventually pulled up in front of the Hopps farm. She could see mammals working off in the distance, all of whom seemed to be rabbits, and so she judged that if the predators were kept for tasks they would most likely be inside. Many of Nick's tasks took the entire day to do on his own, but even so getting a dozen predators to do them seemed to be more overkill than anything else.

Judy took a moment to compose herself, and the left the car, striding confidently to the door of the burrow and then ringing the doorbell right next to it. It seemed like almost immediately the door opened, and a completely unfamiliar rabbit looked up at her.

"Hello!" He called out, and Judy took a moment to examine him. He seemed to be a young buck, maybe ten or eleven? If he was that age then that would mean he'd have been born after she left.

"Hi, I'm here to speak to..." Judy stopped for just a second. She was about to ask for the heads of the household, but that might not be Stu and Bonnie anymore. She could ask to talk to somebody besides those two, but she wanted to hear what had happened from them, judge for herself if they had changed. "Are Stu and Bonnie in?" She changed her question after all, the confused buck nodding slightly before turning back inside.

"I'll get them for you." He quickly said before shutting the door. Judy sighed, she was only at the door and already couldn't seem to say a single sentence without overthinking it.

She wouldn't wait long before the door opened and the two she came to see would be before her, though she blinked in surprise at seeing them. In the time she'd left the burrow, age had seemed to take a fierce hold of the two, though they weren't what she'd call elderly, not yet.

Stu held himself with a little slouch, the formerly strong (if a bit beefy) frame having seemed to shrink significantly, while Bonnie moved as if every little movement took effort, and even wore glasses. Both rabbits had grey hairs peeking through and even a few wrinkles, and all of this added up to make them seem like smaller, lesser versions of their previous selves.

"Jude?" Bonnie asked in surprise that was soon mirrored by Stu, and Judy blinked again.

"Hi." She greeted back with a forced smile, before both rabbits moved forward with a quickness that belied their age, and enveloped her in a hug.

Judy waited patiently for them to let go, as she knew they eventually would and though they hugged her, she would not return the gesture.

* * *

They would move from the doorway over to a side stretch of land on top of a hill. The two older rabbits had invited Judy inside, but she'd brushed off the offer by saying she didn't have a lot of time. It was a fairly true statement, even if she left right now it would be almost night by the time she got back to the city.

Still, the two Hopps didn't wait long after they'd all sat down before they tried to open up: "So Jude, how've you been?" Stu asked and Judy tilted her head as if she was thinking.

"I've been doing well. Keeping busy." She replied. It was true as of late, though it certainly wasn't the case when she'd first gotten into the city.

"Been keeping out of trouble?" He asked and she nodded. "Are you still going around with that fox?" The question made her brow twitch a little, but she nodded still. "If you ever come back out here could you bring him? I'd like to apologize." Stu spoke with a happy town that quickly grew sadder and when he was finished the last word, he was no longer looking at her.

Judy shot Bonnie a quick glance, and to her surprise she wasn't making eye contact either. "I heard you've gotten a lot more domestic predators now." Judy began, shifting the subject onto what she actually meant to talk about. Both other rabbits looked up quickly at that, proud smiles on their faces. "How did that happen?" Judy asked before either could interrupt.

"Now that's a bit of a long story..." Stu started before trailing off.

"It started about... 13 years ago?" Bonnie came to his rescue. "You remember your brother Justin?" Judy nodded. "This all started soon after he got married."

Judy raised a brow at that. She knew Justin but had never heard him talk about any girlfriends, still though, two years was a long time. "Did I know her?" She asked and Bonnie shook her head.

"She came in from out of town, and she wasn't here long. She died in a traffic accident." Judy felt a pang of sympathy at the words. Even if she wanted as little as possible to do with her family she still didn't want to hear about sad moments like this.

Bonnie looked away and this time it was Stu who came to her rescue. "Justin wanted kits so badly Jude, so much." He sighed as his eyes temporarily glossed over, and then he was back. "Well a few days after she died he decided to go on a trip, just a little vacation he told us. The next time we'd saw him, he came back with Ryan and told us he bought him from two arctic foxes living in a shelter." As Stu spoke he started shifting and reached into his pocket, managing to fish out his phone right as he finished speaking, and soon he had it displaying a picture.

It looked like the arctic fox she'd seen on the Furbook images, though in this picture the fox looked far younger, around the same age as Nick when her family had first gotten him, though there was no collar. "He wasn't collared?" Judy asked.

"No." "At first." Stu and Bonnie spoke at almost the same time and with conflicting information, Stu saying the no, but after glancing at each other he quickly looked back at his phone and started flipping through it while Bonnie looked at Judy.

"When he came to the burrow he wasn't collared. We demanded he would be though, but after Justin saw the first shock happen he took the collar off and refused to put it back on." Bonnie explained and Judy tried to imagine how that must have been at the time.

"You didn't just force him to do it?" She asked, getting a little too curious when Bonnie shook her head.

"We argued at first, but he was mourning and we eventually agreed to let Ryan go without it for a week, so long as Justin stayed with him at all times and they stayed away from the kits." Judy could see how their opinion might be swayed a little, but she couldn't help in remembering something she still despised.

"Did you give him the training manual?" She asked with disgust in her voice, only to see the same sort of disgust cross both other rabbits in front of her.

"We threw that awful thing away." Bonnie answered and Judy had to admit she felt a little glad.

"When?" She pressed on.

"About a year after he came back with Ryan." Bonnie replied and Judy nodded. Of course they wouldn't have thought to throw it away right away, so what changed?

"So you didn't give it to him though?" She tried rewording her previous question.

Stu suddenly spoke up: "We tried, but you know Justin. Proud, too proud to try getting answers from a book." He let out a little chuckle at that and Judy could see Bonnie smile a little. "Do you know what he told us Jude?" Stu asked and she shook her head. "He told us..." He raised a finger up for emphasis: "'I don't need a stupid book to teach me how to raise a fox right!'"

Stu punctuated the words with motions from his finger and Judy smiled a little bit at that. She had never been all that close to Justin before, but now she almost wished she had. "So what happened?" She asked.

Stu dropped his arm before continuing. "A week went by, then we demanded he collar Ryan again." A look of regret seemed to cross his features at that. "But do you know what happened when we did Jude?"

Judy could only frown in confusion this time at the question. "He got shocked?" She guessed the most obvious answer.

"No, it's..." Stu began only to stop in thought. "When he didn't have the collar, even though he wasn't near the kits, he played like one." Stu began as he turned his head and stared off into the distance. "He would run around, he'd try to get Justin to chase him, he'd jump on Justin when he thought nobody was looking..." He sniffled a little before continuing, much to Judy's surprise. "When we put that collar on him I saw in an instant that bright little kit turn into somebody else. For a second he looked exactly like the fox when we brought him home that first time."

Judy could barely remember the event, but she nodded anyway. "So what happened after that?" She asked when neither Stu nor Bonnie continued the story.

"I uncollared him." Stu spoke in a sad voice. "For just a second Jude, I saw what would happen if I didn't, and I don't want any more of my kits to ab- abandon their family." He stuttered slightly at the end, but Judy understood what he'd meant. Apparently an uncollared predator kit was considered the lesser of two evils when the other one involved one of their children choosing a predator over them.

"You approved of this?" Judy addressed Bonnie as she tried to imagine the argument that would've ensued.

"Heavens, no!" Bonnie suddenly spoke up, confirming Judy's thoughts. "We argued for a very long time about it Bun, and you were brought up a fair bit too." Judy blinked at that, though the older doe continued: "Eventually, I agreed that it was better to keep a fox kit under careful watch though."

"You both thought he'd choose Ryan over you?" She asked and sad looks crossed their faces once more.

"You never saw him with Ryan Jude." Stu whispered out. "Justin wanted kits so badly, that I think he started seeing Ryan as his own, despite the obvious differences."

Judy nodded, and for a few seconds silence fell as all three stopped talking. "What made you throw the training manual away?" She eventually asked.

Bonnie took the lead on that one: "We started questioning it when Christmas rolled around, you remember those, right Bun?" She asked hopefully and Judy nodded. "In all the chaos somehow Ryan managed to slip away and join some of the younger kits. Even though he knew he wasn't allowed to, he played with them and their new toys, though we eventually caught him." Looks of regret flashed across both of their faces once more.

"What did you do?" Judy asked with a little worry.

"Do you remember how the fox looked during his first Christmas, when he wasn't allowed presents?" Asked Bonnies suddenly, and Judy shook her head. Bonnie sighed again before speaking up once more: "I'd forgotten how he'd looked too, right up until we caught Ryan. If it wasn't for his fur colour I'd swear he'd have looked the exact same. Sad, lonely and scared."

There was a pause, and then Stu was speaking again: "When we saw him like that, we decided just for Christmas he'd be able to play with the other kits, but after that things would go back to normal." Oddly enough a happy smile came across his features when he'd finished.

"I'm guessing that didn't last long?" Judy took a stab at the unlikely answer, and Stu nodded his head.

"We made sure to keep him away from the kits, we just didn't think the kits wouldn't keep away from him!" He announced with a small laugh, and then Bonnie was smiling too.

"Do you remember how interested all you kits were in the fox when we first got him?" Bonnie asked and Judy nodded. That was one memory she had kept. "The smaller kits were the same way around Ryan, all begging to play with him and even Justin began asking to let them play, so eventually we did, under heavy supervision of course."

"You were afraid he claw or bite somebody?" Judy asked the obvious question, and both older rabbits nodded.

"We thought we'd have a repeat of Gideon." Stu answered while raising a hand to point at her cheek. "Crazy thing is, we almost did."

That made her heart skip a beat, but before she could ask further his wife took control of the story: "Ryan scratched one of the others too hard and cut them, and you wouldn't believe how mad I was that we'd let this happen, but then he started crying." Stu sniffled at that, and then Bonnie continued the story: "We learned this later, but in the shelter in which Ryan came from was one of the worse off ones. One of those where if you could get any number of nasty infections and die just from a single cut, so he panicked."

A smile came to her face then. "He ran around the room begging for all of us to help him, and of course at the time we didn't know why he thought this was so bad. So we put a bandaid on the cut, and I told him that everyone was okay and nobody was going to die... and then he hugged me." She looked away again while Stu let out another sniffle. "He was so much like one of you kits..." She whispered and silence fell once more.

"Is that when you threw the book out?" She ventured.

"No, that happened when Marlene got Paul from a shelter." Stu answered, but before Judy could fully take in what this new development he continued talking: "I'm not sure why she did it, but it was the very next day she left, and the day afterwards we found her with this skunk in her arms. Poor thing looked almost skeletal, half dead and you wouldn't believe the condition of his fur."

"Did he come from another shelter?" Judy asked and Stu nodded.

"We brought in Doctor Leaps to take a look, and he told us it was a 50/50 chance of him even making it, though Paul pulled through." A bit of relief came onto him after that. "Like Justin, Marlene said she didn't need a book to make him a proper skunk, and she'd also demanded he go without his collar."

"Did it go as well?" Judy couldn't resists asking, and Stu shrugged.

"It went about as well as before, though the kits didn't stay away from him like they originally stayed away from Ryan." At that another thought occurred to Judy.

"Neither of them were targeted or bullied by the older kits?" She asked and Stu looked thoughtful for a second.

"I can't 100% say that they weren't, but honestly Jude the last time I can remember a really bad bullying case was when the fox had his arm broken." Stu answered, and Judy made a quick note in her head that he didn't mention who broke it.

"What happened after that?" She querried when it seemed like neither were going any further.

Bonnie chose that moment to come back in: "Martha went and got a weasel, Susan got a red fox, Jerry went out and got a different skunk, all from shelters Bun, and they were all in a very bad way when we got them." She took in a breath before focusing Judy with a hard look. "We were worried they'd be unruly when they got better... but then Martha's weasel died." Bonnies eyes seemed to tear up at that, but for Stu they began rolling almost immediately, even as he started speaking.

"I was there when he went Jude, and do you know what I saw?" Judy did not move or say anything, but Stu continued anyway: "I saw a tiny kit curl up in my crying daughter's arms, and then he was gone." He let out a sniffle at that, and though she tried her hardest to keep it down, Judy felt pity begin to worm its way up. "He was smaller than any of you at his age, his hair was missing in spots, and I don't think he ate much before we'd gotten him... it just made us think." He took a moment to sniffle again. "We realized two things that night Jude, the first was that our kits were going to keep bringing in mammals who needed help, and the second was that we couldn't be prouder of them for doing that."

He had a smile on through the tears at that, and the smile was soon shared by Bonnie. "That was when we threw the book away Bun." Bonnie stated before taking in another breath: "We threw it away and talked with everyone about what we were going to do."

Stu spoke up as excitement seemed to get the better of him: "We'd make a plan. We'd take in the worst off in the shelters, the ones who weren't likely to survive on their own. We'd raise them like normal kits, as much as we could anyway. When they graduated we'd set them free from their contracts and give them two choices, they could stay, or they or they could leave." He seemed rather proud of it when he finished, and so did Bonnie.

"How many have you tried taking in so far?" She asked and Stu let out a whistle while Bonnie frowned in thought.

"I think we're nearing twenty?" She asked absently. "Currently we have twelve, some have left, and some occassionally don't make it. We could show you pictures of all of them if you want to come inside for a bit."

"One second." Judy responded as she pulled out her phone and glanced at the time, noting that they'd been sitting here for a quite a while, and she deemed that she'd heard enough. "I'm sorry but it looks like I have to get going." Judy stated as she put the device away, and both other rabbits nodded slowly.

"Will you come back again? We still have so much to tell you and I'm sure you've got a lot to tell us." Bonnie asked as Judy moved to stand.

"I'll consider it," Judy started, before giving the two rabbits one last look. "Thank you for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Hopps."

The sad looks on their faces told her they understood exactly what she'd meant with those words, and then Judy left for her car.

* * *

Through the walk back to her car Judy felt... light, free, as if a weight was gone from her shoulders and it made the walk to her car and the drive back into the city feel like a surprisingly short one.

No matter what they'd said, no matter what they did, she would always remember the past, she'd remember them choosing not to free a scared kit when he was young and his contract was broken. She remembered them not treating him as much besides property when he was still technically theirs, and she remembered all of the hardships that came when they moved to a city and he tried to adjust to a normal life.

She remembered being woken up in the middle of the night by Nick's night terrors. She remembered him trying to push her away because he thought he wasn't a good enough mate and she remembered both her and his therapist trying to work through his crippling self-doubt. She remembered the sudden panic that used to envelope him during any kind of confrontation, and she remembered the scars on his neck when he'd had a dream that his collar had been strangling him, and he attempted to take it off through any means necessary. There was more she remembered, but it was all in the past now, and hopefully it would stay there, alongside the Hopps.

When Judy pulled into her driveway it was late at night and she was tired. Still, she did a quick check on her two sleeping boys, then her snoozing girl, before finally peering in on her husband. Nick was spread out on his back under the covers, a dopey smile on his face, and with a smile of her own she moved to join him.

Later she planned to tell him all about the conversation, and describe in detail everything she'd seen at the Hopps farm. Right now she simply wanted to enjoy the simple moments like this one, where everyone in the household was completely and utterly content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it. I hope that was a lot more satisfying than the conclusion you got from the last chapter, as now we know what happened to the Hopps family in the end. Those who still want retribution are no doubt disappointed, but this was never meant to be a story where everyone gets just punishment for all of their actions.
> 
> I titled this 'What Could Have Been' because I really do see it as the best possible outcome for the Hopps family in this story, as it best shows their positive qualities (few they may be) and it gives you an idea of what Nick's life with them could have been like. In this chapter they learn from the past mistakes they made with Nick, and even if their motivations aren't quite in the right place (as they initially choose to do what they do out of interest for their own, rather than for the predators involved) they do eventually have a positive outcome as a whole.
> 
> Honestly my feelings towards them are summed up fairly well by Judy's final goodbye to them. I made sure not to ever once refer to them as her parents in this story through the narration, because after everything Judy and Nick are going to have to go through in the sequel (specifically a lot of emotional trauma) she will no longer see them as such. Does she forgive them? No and you don't need to either, but she's able to move on, and if I continued this story and looked ahead another decade or so and they continued doing what they're doing, maybe she'd be able to.
> 
> As stated before the stuff that had brief mentions will be more fully explored in 'When Dreams are Just Dreams' because that's where I'll be able to dig in and show the very long recovery of Nicholas (in this chapter he's already gone through all that), as well as tell a new tale about what happens after they reach the city, though like I've mentioned before, it's not getting posted until it's fully finished, so it's going to take a long time.


End file.
